Parkview Financial closed a $70 million loan to Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) for the refinance and construction of a nine-story, 61,513-square-foot (sf) Class A office/retail building located at 1 & 3 Saint Marks Place in the Greenwich Village submarket of Manhattan.

 

Located on the northeast corner of Saint Marks Place and 3rd Avenue, the property will be situated on a 6,921-sf land parcel and is planned for 53,737 sf of office space, 4,881 sf of ground-floor retail space, and 2,895 sf of below-grade retail space.

 

The borrower acquired the 99-year leasehold interest on the land in 2017 and demolished the aging commercial space on the site. However, construction delays caused by the pandemic and other factors, required the project to be restructured and the original loans underlying the leasehold to be recapitalized. Parkview Financials’ loan includes the refinance of the existing land loan as well as construction financing. Development has now begun with project completion anticipated for June 2024.

 

“Due to complexities arising from the pandemic, the borrower required a construction lender that could structure and navigate an extraordinarily complicated and delicate transaction with absolute certainty of execution,” said Paul Rahimian, CEO and Founder of Parkview Financial. “Despite the challenges surrounding some sectors of the office market in New York City, Parkview saw this as a compelling opportunity to provide financing to a best-in-class sponsor for this Class A project that stands to be in high demand from the growing number of tech companies in the area.”

 

While the pandemic induced a higher occupancy rate throughout Manhattan, the market’s fundamentals have been improving as people gradually return to work and companies look to lease space once again. Greenwich Village’s growing technology, advertising, media, and information (TAMI) sectors, combined with the project’s prime East Village location, have created a positive leasing outlook for the high-end asset as the market recovers and tenants are looking for a flight to quality in the office sector.

 

REEC is a family-owned development firm established in 1978 which has purchased or redeveloped in excess of 20 million sf of real estate throughout the United States with a primary geographic focus on the New York region.