J.P. Morgan backs 520 Fifth Avenue site purchase

J.P. Morgan and Fisher Brothers have provided $150m in bridge financing to a joint venture for the acquisition of a development site at 520 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, to be developed into a residential condominium tower.

J.P. Morgan provided the senior portion of the one-year loan, while Fisher Brothers provided the mezzanine piece, to New-York based Ceruzzi Holding and the US subsidiary of the largest state-owned Chinese real estate company, Shanghai Municipal Investment USA (SMI).

The 10,625 sq ft site has 85 feet of frontage along Fifth Avenue and could accommodate up to 355,000 sq ft, according to HFF, which arranged the financing.

The joint venture reportedly bought the development site (along with 60,000 sq ft of air rights) from Thor Equities for about $325m. New York City developers can purchase undeveloped “air” above or adjacent to a property to expand the square footage of projects.

Thor bought the site from RFR Realty in 2012 for $132m, city property record show. The new development is slated to feature about 180,000 sq ft of luxury condos above three retail levels, in addition to a potential hotel component.

David Nackoul, senior managing director, and Christopher Peck, associate director, led the HFF team. The company declined to comment further on the loans and pricing.