Metlife originates $50m loan on retail condos at Zeckendorf Towers

Metlife has provided a $50 million loan on a retail unit at 1 Irving Place, also known as the Zeckendorf Towers, Real Estate Capital has learned.

The loan consolidates existing debt from MetLife with a new $29.8 million bridge loan. MetLife declined to comment on the financing.

Malkin Holdings purchased the retail condominium in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan in October of 2013 for about $81.2 million, city property records show.

The retail unit sits below the massive 27-story, 645-unit Zeckendorf Towers condominium building, built in 1988 in the heart of Union Square.

The four-tower — the Gramercy, Village, Park, and University — property is lined with several hundred thousand sq ft of retail along its massive circumference, including a GNC, Starbucks Coffee, Best Buy Mobile, Panera Bread, Food Emporium and several restaurants.

MetLife’s real estate investment group originated $14.3 billion in global commercial real estate loans in 2015, surpassing last year’s record high of $12.1 billion. That was enough to top the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual originations rankings for life insurance companies.

Recent loans included a $267m loan in January to Mirae Asset Global Investments for the acquisition of 1801 K Street in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. The five-year, fixed-rate loan represents 60 percent of the $445m the South Korea-based investor paid for the 13-story office property.