Howard Hughes Corporation signs $115M refi with Mizuho Bank for FiDi dev site

Howard Hughes Corporation through the entity 250 Seaport District, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Mizuho Bank through the entity Mizuho Capital Markets LLC valued at $115 million for the development building (V1) at 250 Water Street in Financial District, Manhattan.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 269-unit, 528,345 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Howard Hughes Corporation and filed by Saul Scherl with plans filed December 8, 2021 and permitted May 3, 2022.
The deal closed on September 7, 2023 and was recorded on September 11, 2023. The prior lender was Helaba which held debt that had an original loan amount of $100 million.

The property has zero square feet of built space and 288,237 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 288,237 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per buildable square foot is $398 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The owner bought the property on June 8, 2018, for $182.7 million. The signatory for Howard Hughes Corporation was Carlos A. Olea. The signatory for Mizuho Bank was Mirza Kafedzic.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 333 feet and is 190 feet deep with a total lot size of 47,880 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-2A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $14.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $100 million and was provided by Helaba on November 19, 2019.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was seeking a judgment concerning a development filed on February 8, 2022, by South Street Seaport Coalition against City of New York. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $2,550 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Financial District, The majority, or 74 percent of the 79.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Financial District has the 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Financial District is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 12 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owner of the one commercial property on the block. The identified owner is Howard Hughes Corporation.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 528,345 square feet. It is a 269-unit, 528,345 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Howard Hughes Corporation and filed by Saul Scherl with plans filed December 8, 2021 and permitted May 3, 2022.

All properties are development.

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