Joe Berko and Michael Korine, of Berko & Associates have completed a $27,000,000 blanket financing package to recapitalize The Paper Factory Hotel, and to fund the expansion of the sponsor’s concept to the up-and-coming neighborhood of Greenpoint. The initial construction financing for The Paper Factory Hotel, an ultra-hip luxury destination in Long Island City set to open in this month, was originally put in place in 2012 by the firm’s Finance & Capital Markets Group. In addition, the package provided full financing for the acquisition of 3 adjacent properties in Greenpoint, sourced by the firm’s Investment Sales team. The Greenpoint assembly is set to be converted to a trendy hotel and café in early 2014.
According to Michael Korine, Head of Berko’s Finance & Capital Markets Group, “the process to put in place this complicated acquisition and financing involved great cooperation and diligence between all the parties involved, including the Sponsor, the Seller and the Lender. We managed to tackle many simultaneous challenges surrounding the completion and launch of the Paper Factory, with a slew of legal and physical complications involved with the Greenpoint acquisition.
Joe Berko, Founder and President of Berko & Associates, attributes the success of this venture to the “ability to negotiate the best terms for our client and prove to the Lender that the Long Island City and Brooklyn submarkets were ready for another boutique hotel.“ Berko & Associates is a full service investment sales, finance and advisory firm providing turnkey solutions to commercial real estate developers by combining its brokerage operations with a boutique investment banking approach to structuring financing solutions to achieve client growth objectives. The firm utilizes a long term strategic approach to its client relationships, helping them evaluate and structure their long term expansion plans, and fully capitalizing those strategies by structuring and placing requisite debt and equity financing.