Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Closing of $1.8 Billion Financing for Tishman Speyer's Spiral Development Project
NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE: BXMT) (the "Company" or "BXMT") today announced the closing of a $1.8 billion financing for Tishman Speyer's construction of the Spiral, a 2.8 million square foot trophy office building 28% preleased to Pfizer and located in the Hudson Yards district of New York City. The financing represents BXMT's largest ever single asset origination and third construction financing for Tishman Speyer, one of the leading owners, developers and operators of first-class real estate worldwide.
Steve Plavin, President and CEO of BXMT, said, "We are very excited to finance Tishman Speyer on this preeminent project. Our well-protected, low leverage loan has an extremely strong credit profile and is consistent with BXMT's strategy of lending on institutional quality real estate with strong sponsorship in gateway markets. BXMT's ability to originate the Spiral financing is a testament to our excellent relationship with Tishman Speyer as well as the strength of the Blackstone platform and unmatched scale of our real estate business."
Tishman Speyer President and CEO Rob Speyer said, "Tishman Speyer is pleased to partner with Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the development of The Spiral, the world's most connected and collaborative office environment. With its iconic design, amazing views and abundant access to outdoor amenity spaces, The Spiral will serve as a major leap forward in the evolution of the modern workplace."
When complete, The Spiral will be a 65-story, Class AA office tower featuring one-of-a-kind architecture designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group featuring a cascading series of landscaped terraces and hanging gardens, unobstructed river and city views and column-free floor plates. The Spiral financing has strong credit metrics including a loan-to-cost ratio of less than 50% with over $1.9 billion of equity to be invested in the $3.6 billion project. A $185 million portion of the financing will be advanced in the short term, with the remainder funding over time starting in approximately 2 years, after the equity is fully funded. The Company will consider syndication or financing options for the senior portion of the loan consistent with its existing senior loan leverage strategy.
Fried Frank served as legal advisor for BXMT and Sullivan & Cromwell served as legal advisor for Tishman Speyer.
About Blackstone Mortgage Trust
Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE: BXMT) is a real estate finance company that originates senior loans collateralized by commercial real estate in North America and Europe. Our investment objective is to preserve and protect shareholder capital while producing attractive risk-adjusted returns primarily through dividends generated from current income from our loan portfolio. We are externally managed by BXMT Advisors L.L.C., a subsidiary of Blackstone. Further information is available at www.bxmt.com.
About Blackstone
Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is one of the world's leading investment firms. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for its investors, the companies it invests in, and the communities in which it works. Blackstone does this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Blackstone's asset management businesses, with over $430 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.
About Tishman Speyer
Tishman Speyer is a leading owner, developer, operator and fund manager of first-class real estate around the world. Founded in 1978, Tishman Speyer is active across the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, building and managing premier office, residential and retail space in 29 key global markets for industry-leading tenants. The firm has acquired, developed and operated a portfolio of over 165 million square feet with a total value of approximately US $83 billion spread over 401 assets. Signature assets include New York City's Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center, São Paulo's Torre Norte, The Springs in Shanghai, Lumière in Paris and OpernTurm in Frankfurt. Tishman Speyer currently has projects at different stages of development in Boston, Brasília, Frankfurt, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Washington, DC. The firm also operates portfolios of prominent office property portfolios in Berlin, Chicago and London.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which reflect Blackstone Mortgage Trust's current views with respect to, among other things, Blackstone Mortgage Trust's operations and financial performance. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "indicator," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "seeks," "predicts," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates" or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Blackstone Mortgage Trust believes these factors include but are not limited to those described under the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, as such factors may be updated from time to time in its periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in the filings. Blackstone Mortgage Trust assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward‐looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events or circumstances.
SOURCE Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc.
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