Affiliates of Blackstone Mortgage Trust have provided $724.2 million of financing to Cove Property Group.
The refinance is for Hudson Commons, Cove’s 25-story, 698,000-square-foot trophy office redevelopment at 441 Ninth Avenue in the Hudson Yards submarket of Manhattan.
“From day one, we held true to our business plan of preserving a remarkable industrial building, while adding to it an integrated, efficient tower and thereby creating a best-in-class work environment that fosters collaboration, innovation and growth, all at the gateway to Manhattan’s newest center of business,” said Kevin Hoo, founder and managing partner at Cove. “Cove and Baupost are extremely proud of the finished product, which we recently launched to market, and we look to welcome new tenants into the remaining tower floors. We are pleased that Blackstone appreciates the execution of our vision, and we are excited to be partners with them in this next chapter of Hudson Commons.”
Cove, in partnership with The Baupost Group, purchased the property from Emblem Health in December 2016. Over the past two years, the partners pursued an ambitious and creative adaptive reuse of the original eight-story former warehouse, combining it with a new, yet contextual, 17-story overbuild.
Hudson Commons is currently 65 percent leased. Peloton anchors the property with its 336,000-square-foot headquarters and is joined by Lyft in 100,000 square feet and Brevet in 16,000 square feet. Only 213,000 square feet of office space remains across the newly constructed boutique tower floors, ranging from 16,000 to 23,000 square feet. This includes the penthouse, which boasts a 28-foot slab height, panoramic views of the city and a private rooftop garden.
