Office Investor Broadway Partners Faces the Music on Short-Term Debt [Manhattan]
Broadway Partners put its name up in lights by being one of the most aggressive buyers of office skyscrapers in the past two years. Now, it’s scrambling to put its financial house in order.
Broadway, a closely held New York-based office investor, bought $13.6 billion of office towers from 2002 to 2007 — flipping some for handsome profits. But it also bought several billion dollars of property with short-term debt near the top of the market in 2006 and 2007. When real-estate markets seized up last summer, Broadway was suddenly put on defense and is now trying to shore up its finances before the debt comes due in early 2009.
Broadway’s predicament is another sign of the dangers of short-term debt to once-highflying property players in today’s beleaguered commercial real-estate market. New York tycoon Harry Macklowe, unable to refinance $7 billion in short-term debt, has agreed to give his lenders the keys to seven Manhattan towers. Mall owner Centro Properties may be forced into liquidation if it can’t get an extension beyond April 30 on $4.9 billion in debt it obtained last year.