Mystery Real Estate Company To Build 47-Story Chinese Tower In New York

  • 09sep
    2014

Bank of China is negotiating for more than just office space at the gleaming new tower across from Bryant Park that it is hoping to anchor.

The bank, which in recent years has become a major lender on large commercial buildings in the city, wants to provide the property’s mortgage and also potentially take an ownership or condo interest in it as well, several sources say.

As Crain’s previously reported, Bank of China is in negotiations to take about 200,000 square feet at 7 Bryant Park, the 30-story, 471,000-square-foot tower that is nearing completion in a partnership between Hines, Pacolet Milliken Enterprises and JPMorgan Asset Management on the full block-front along Sixth Avenue between West 39th and West 40th streets.

Sources say the bank’s tenancy is being structured either as a condo interest, in which Bank of China would buy its floors, or in an ownership stake, in which it would join the building’s partners as an owner or perhaps buy one or more of them out.

The Beijing-based financial institution, which is one of the world’s largest banks, is also seeking to provide the property with a mortgage, which it will likely need once construction is finished. According to information previously released by Hines, that company, plus Pacolet Milliken Enterprises and JPMorgan Asset Management, financed the tower’s construction using their own cash and no loans.

In recent years, Bank of China has provided several large office towers with mortgages, including 245 Park Ave. It also helped finance Joe Chetrit’s acquisition of the Sony Building last year for $1.1 billion.