High-profile real estate firm Tishman Speyer has agreed to loan terms with Bank of America and Wells Fargo on the refinance of the famed Rockefeller Center in New York.
Bank of America intends to roll the loan into a new commercial mortgage-backed securities offering, according to a filing this week from Bank of America with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount and terms of the loan agreement were not disclosed.
The 12-building, 6.8 million-square-foot complex is currently subject to a $1.69 billion CMBS loan originated in 2005 with a maturity date of next May, according to CoStar data. Tishman acquired the complex in 2001 for $1.85 billion.
The complex was most recently appraised in 2021 at $3.8 billion, according to S&P Global Ratings, one of the bond rating firms on the current CMBS transaction.
If the upcoming loan is large enough to repay the outstanding CMBS loan balance, it would be the largest single-borrower CMBS office loan since at least April 2022, and maybe longer depending on the loan balance, according to CoStar data.
Tishman Speyer declined to comment.
Market rebound
Rockefeller Center is in New York’s Plaza District, whose office market has clearly turned a corner this year, according to CoStar analysis.
New leasing activity in the area has notably picked up during the second quarter. Half-year leasing totals easily eclipse those from a year ago and are on par with pre-pandemic mid-year leasing averages. Annual leasing activity is now on pace to be at its highest total since 2019, according to CoStar.
The market is at the center of what could be shaping up to be a rebound of office leasing improvement in Manhattan, according to Victor Rodriguez, CoStar’s senior director of market analytics for New York.
Available office space in Manhattan declined by 120 basis points in the third quarter from the previous quarter, from 18.2% to 17%. This decrease represents a quarterly decline of nearly 7 million square feet of office space, Rodriguez reported this month. The previous largest decline in availability occurred in 2006, with office availability dropping by just under 70 basis points.
Tishman has been redeveloping Rockefeller Center and is expected to complete the project later this year. The firm has added three restaurants on the ice rink level while transforming retail offerings to place New York-born concepts such as bookstore McNally Jackson and jeweler Catbird alongside global brands including Alo Yoga, Tiffany & Co. and Lego.
Tishman has also updated the three-level Top of the Rock observation deck 70 stories above the plaza.
New attraction
This fall, Tishman plans to unveil the Skylift, a revolving, glass-enclosed platform that will elevate visitors nearly 900 feet in the air for 360-degree views of the skyline and beyond. The Skylift represents the completion of its “revitalization” of the center, the firm has said.
Such redevelopment has paid off. In August, luxury auction house Christie’s opted to renew at its longtime New York home for 25 years.
45 Rockefeller Plaza, the largest office building at the complex at 2.73 million square feet, is currently 98.8% leased, according to CoStar data. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a 2.29 million-square-foot office building, is currently 97.7% leased,
In the past two years, income from the retail tenants and observation deck has increased. Tishman also signed new or renewal leases comprising about 5.8% of net rentable area in 2022 and 7.6% in 2023, according to S&P.