Commercial lending rises to $13.8B in October, with Wells Fargo top lender

By Adam Pincus

Wells Fargo was the top lender last month, with $1.4 billion in loans among the $13.8 billion issued for deals of $5 million and up in New York City. The total amount of debt from all lenders recorded rose from $9.1 billion, driven mostly by refinances, but an uptick in the sales market boosted the totals as well.

Wells Fargo issued its largest loan, at $823.5 million, to L+M Development Partners and Invesco Real Estate, for their $1.16 billion purchase of an Upper Manhattan portfolio of approximately 2,800 rental units from Brookfield Property Partners and Urban American Management. The loan was the second largest recorded last month.

Wells was active beyond that, issuing 12 loans in all that were recorded in October. Other large debt packages included $195 million to the Queens cooperative Rochdale Village and $178.8 million to TF Cornerstone against its 356-unit Chelsea Centro rental building.

PincusCo Media analyzed all loans recorded in New York City property records in the month of October which totaled more than $5 million. Loans issued by more than one lender were divided equally by the number of lenders.

The second most active lender was Deutsche Bank, with a pro-rated total of $962 million, with the largest being the $1.1 billion loan it issued along with HSBC against the Financial District office tower 28 Liberty Street. That loan was the largest of the month.

That was also Deutsche Bank’s first big loan recorded following an unusually quiet third quarter. The bank typically issues $1 billion or $2 billion per quarter, but only provided four loans totaling $287.6 million in those three months.

The German bank, which is under financial and regulatory pressure, declined to comment on the slow period, and insiders said the bank has been responding to loan inquiries as normal.

The bank also provided a $265 million loan to Metro Loft Management for 180 Water Street, and smaller loans to Vanbarton Group and to the joint venture of SK Development, CB Developers and Ironstate Development which recently completed a Chelsea rental building.

The next most active lender was Goldman Sachs, with three loans. The largest was $421.5 million given to RXR Realty for the office and retail building 620 Sixth Avenue in Flatiron. The investment bank also provided a $386 million loan to DTH Capital and Rose Associates against their rental tower at 70 Pine Street in Lower Manhattan.

The fourth most active lender was JPMorgan Chase, with a total of $767.4 million provided through 18 loans. That was a drop from the $824.1 million in 26 loans given in the prior month. The largest in October was a $575 million loan given to Vornado Realty Trust at 2 Penn Plaza.

Rounding out the top five was Blackstone, which provided $690.5 million in two loans, the larger of which was $515.5 million given to Gary Barnett’s Extell Development as a condominium inventory loan on One Manhattan Plaza. The other loan was $175 million provided to Metro Loft Management at 175 Water Street.

Other active lenders included New York Community Bank which provided debt on 20 debt packages totaling $359.9 million, which was a slight drop from the prior month when it lent against 30 packages totaling $361.9 million. The bank lent $178 million to Stellar Management, $32 to Pinnacle Group, $30.7 to Bronstein Properties, and others.

Bank OZK gave $300 million to Russian developer Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group for the redevelopment of the upper portion of 730 Fifth Avenue into condominiums and a hotel. That was the bank’s second largest loan of the year, behind the $350 million it provided for the acquisition of the Parker rental building by GFI Capital Resources Group and Elliott Management. Bank OZK has issued about $1.5 billion in debt this year.

Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies, which has issued about $1.4 billion in debt this year, provided $201.5 million to David Marx’ Marx Development Group and $65 million to Related Companies.