RFR Secures $100M Loan for 160 Fifth Avenue

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- RFR Holding LLC, a fully integrated real estate investment firm based in New York City with a core focus on select urban markets in the United States and Germany, today announced the closing of $100 million of financing for 160 Fifth Avenue, a 107,000-square-foot office property located in the Midtown South submarket of Manhattan. Through this transaction with Citibank, RFR will retire $65 million of existing debt on the Class A boutique property, while taking advantage of lower interest rates to reduce its cost of capital going forward.

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"We continue to pursue our portfolio-wide strategy to limit rate exposure through refinancing," said Mark Weiss, Chief Investment Officer of RFR. "In the case of 160 Fifth Avenue, RFR has 100% leased the property and completed a major renovation and restoration program that substantially enhanced the value of the asset.  By refinancing we not only take advantage of current interest rates, but also recover equity capital for new opportunities."

RFR successfully repositioned 160 Fifth Avenue and fully leased all the office and retail space. The Simons Foundation, a private charitable foundation dedicated to the advancement of mathematics and science founded by hedge fund manager James H. Simons, Ph.D., currently leases 76,000 square feet after expanding its initial lease. The tenant roster at 160 Fifth Avenue also includes Grohe America, the luxury faucet designer, which leases office and showroom space; Forrester Research; and Prophet Brand Strategy. Club Monaco occupies the retail component of 160 Fifth Avenue.

The multi-million dollar renovation and restoration program of the circa 1892 building included a fully landscaped 3,300-square-foot private rooftop terrace available to all tenants and a rotating lobby art program featuring the pieces from the Lever House Art Collection. Additionally, RFR undertook a façade and cornice restoration, new entrance, new lobby, new elevator cabs, new restrooms, new HVAC systems, new telecommunications/electrical infrastructure and custom-fabricated energy-efficient operable over-sized windows.

About RFR

RFR is a fully integrated real estate investment firm based in New York City with a core focus on select urban markets in the United States and Germany. Founded by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs in the early 1990's, the firm has been an active force in the New York City and German real estate market for much of the past two decades. RFR's portfolio has grown to include more than 100 properties located in select domestic and international markets. While its property portfolio is anchored in the Manhattan and key German commercial markets, RFR also has significant commercial, residential, hotel, and retail holdings. RFR has a proven track record of adding significant value to the properties it acquires through property-level repositioning and strategic financial engineering. RFR has created an organization with deep experience in all phases of the property life cycle and is positioned to take advantage of market opportunities.

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SOURCE RFR Realty LLC