bloggingbuyouts

So you think there's a credit crunch and a glut of property on the market? Tell it to Manhattanites. Global private equity giant The Carlyle Group has announced along with Extell Development Company and RREEF that they have secured a $613 million construction loan for the development of two luxury residential buildings at Riverside South on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Deutsche Bank led the large lending consortium of nine banks that provided the financing. The release calls this the largest construction loan secured in the U.S. in 2008.

This property group is located on the upper West Side located at West 62nd and West 63rd Streets between Riverside Boulevard and Freedom Place South. The two buildings also total some 880,000 gross square feet and the buildings are under construction. For now, the completion dates are slated for the first half of 2010.

Riverside South is a 13-acre tract of land purchased by Carlyle and Extell for $1.8 billion in 2005. One building will be rental properties and one will have dual rental and ownership units.

"The rest of us" have a hard time understanding where the endless money comes from to keep buying up these micro-spaces for more than many will ever amass in an entire lifetime. When you see people still willing to pay $1 million for under 1,000 square feet, it's no wonder at all how or why these projects get financed.