MetLife provides $170m financing on Manhattan apartments

MetLife has provided a $170 refinancing on The Bristol apartment building in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan.

The life insurance company had provided previous financing to the borrower, Glenwood Management Company, in 2010, property records show. The 33-story, 369-unit rental apartment building, The Bristol at 300 East 56th Street, was built in 1975. Glenwood Management’s founder, Leonard Litwin, purchased the property in August 1967.

The lender also provided a $50 million loan on the Zeckendorf Towers in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood this April. MetLife manages a total of $45.4 billion in commercial mortgage loans as of March 31, 2016, according to its latest quarterly report.

MetLife’s real estate investment group originated $14.3 billion in global commercial real estate loans in 2015, surpassing the previous year’s record high of $12.1 billion. The Mortgage Bankers Association identified MetLife with as the top annual life insurance originator in 2015.

Glenwood Management Company is a New York-based developer of high-end rental apartment buildings that Litwin founded in 1961. The private firm owns about two dozen residential buildings in Manhattan, including the Liberty Plaza 45-story apartment rental complex, the first new building to rise in Manhattan after the September 11 attacks.

MetLife declined to comment, while Glenwood was not immediately available.