The refunding of up to $650 million of Liberty bonds for the One Bryant Park office tower in Manhattan has been delayed due to market conditions.
The 51-story tower is being built by One Bryant Park LLC, a partnership between Bank of America NA and the Durst Organization Inc., and will be the headquarters for the bank's New York City operations.
"We had hoped to put the permanent financing in up until three weeks ago for an end-of-November closing, but everything's been put on hold until the markets settle down," said Durst co-president and chief executive officer Douglas Durst. "We have the ability to wait. Bank of America is the owner, lender, and tenant so I believe that they will wait until market conditions are appropriate."
The two firms each have a 50% ownership stake in the development company. The New York City Industrial Development Agency issued the bonds in 2004 under the Liberty bond program, which was set up by the federal government to revitalize New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The program allowed New York to sell $8 billion of tax-exempt bonds that were not subject to the state's private-activity bond volume cap.
The IDA board approved the refunding in May 2007, and the bonds were expected to price last year but Durst said market conditions had delayed the deal. The refunding's authorization expired so it has to be reauthorized. The deal was presented again at an IDA hearing last week. A date for the IDA board to vote on the deal has not been set.
The building is owned by the Empire State Development Corp., which has leased the building to One Bryant Park for 99 years. Bank of America has partially occupied the building, which is expected to be completely finished by September 2009.
