JPMorgan to Lead Refinancing of Trump-Backed Vornado Tower
JPMorgan to Lead Refinancing of Trump-Backed Vornado Skyscraper
(Bloomberg) -- Vornado Realty Trust turned to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other banks to refinance debt on a New York skyscraper it owns with former president Donald Trump.
The $950 million loan is for 1290 Avenue of the Americas, a 43-story tower located in Midtown Manhattan, according to a report from Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The transaction will be parceled into a commercial mortgage bond that may be announced as soon as next week.
Read more: Trump-Linked Manhattan Tower to be Refinanced Via CMBS Bonds
This will be the second of two Trump-linked office towers that Vornado has refinanced. In April, JPMorgan arranged $1.2 billion of debt linked to 555 California Street in San Francisco. That transaction allowed Vornado and Trump to extract $617 million in equity, a welcome boost to Trump as he faced declining revenues from his real estate empire. This time, no equity is being taken out, the Kroll report showed.
Trump owns 30% of the building, but has no role in property-related decisions, according to Kroll, which showed how revenues have climbed from recent lows in 2019. As of November, the property was 98% leased to 25 tenants, Kroll said.
The mortgage loan is interest-only, and will not deleverage over its 10-year term due to the absence of amortization.
Trump’s stake in the joint venture with Vornado is the most valuable part of his portfolio, worth about $685 million of his $2.5 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Despite shrinking demand for office space, lower rents and uncertainty about how much telecommuting will occur post-pandemic, investors have clamored for securitized bonds that offer a little more yield than other asset-backed debt and corporate securities.
Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of Montreal are also arranging the debt.
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