New York-based luxury developer Blackhouse is shopping for a $300m construction loan on the Shanghai Club Tower, a planned 60-storey hotel and luxury condominium in the burgeoning Hudson Yards district on Manhattan’s west side.
Sean Ludwick, managing partner of the firm, said the loan would allow Blackhouse to refinance a $60.8m loan from UBS Real Estate Securities that was used towards last month’s $62m acquisition of the site.
If successful, the $300m in debt would give Blackhouse a 75% loan-to-cost on the estimated $400m project.
The development, at the corner of West 38th Street and 11th Avenue, will  span 380,000 square feet (320,000 gross floor area) with a 450-key hotel and 50 high-end luxury condos. Ludwick noted there are “very few large parcels of land that you can develop [in New York City] and get these economies of scale.”
Ludwick plans to pay $25m for 160,000 buildable square feet in city air rights to achieve the square footage. New York City developers can purchase undeveloped “air” above or adjacent to a property, and in this case Ludwick expects to acquire the rights within “the next couple of months”.
Blackhouse is developing the property with what Ludwick referred to as a large Chinese equity partner. The firm plans to break ground within the next nine months, with a planned opening in the spring of 2018. Plans call for the inclusion of a membership-only dining club called Shanghai Club, and condo prices will range between $6m and $8m.
The neighborhood is teeming with activity thanks in no small part to the success of the High Line park and a surge in development led by Related Companies’ up-and-coming 17 million-square-foot Hudson Yards project. The No. 7 subway line will be extended into the neighborhood.
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