Billionaires David and Simon Reuben have bolstered their New York City property investments, helping to refinance debt on an ultra-luxury condo skyscraper on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row.
The British brothers joined with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to provide a roughly $500 million loan for Central Park Tower, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The 131-story property, built by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, is home to New York’s most expensive residential listing, a penthouse priced at $250 million.
The debt replenished and supplemented a previous $500 million loan that had already been paid down through condo sales at the building, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
A representative for the Reuben brothers didn’t respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for JPMorgan and Extell declined to comment.
The Reubens control one of the world’s biggest portfolios of retail, office and residential properties. They have disclosed more than half-dozen real estate investments in New York since the start of 2020, including the purchase of the Surrey Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, financing for the Time Hotel near Times Square and the Apthorp, a luxury condo building on the Upper West Side.
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Elsewhere in the US, the brothers are exploring ways to finish one of Los Angeles’s biggest real estate projects after recently taking control of major parts of the $2.5 billion development through debt-financing deals.
David, 84, and Simon, 82, have a total net worth of about $14 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Sons of Iraqi Jews, the brothers were born in India and moved to London as teenagers. They built a fortune trading metals through their company Trans-World Group, which they sold in 2000 to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and invested the proceeds in real estate, leisure and technology firms.
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Central Park Tower, at 1,550 feet (472 meters), is the world’s tallest residential building, according to the property’s website. It was Extell’s second project along Billionaire’s Row, a group of condo skyscrapers around West 57th Street targeting ultra-wealthy buyers.
Closings began in 2021 at the 179-unit tower near Columbus Circle, which has a Nordstrom store at its base. Sales have continued at a steady clip as Barnett has agreed to discounts of more than 20% off the list price on some recent closings.
--With assistance from Jennifer Epstein and Natalie Wong.
