Funds affiliated with Global management of Apollo and German Bank are the lenders behind Hackman Capital Partners and Capital management per square mileThe purchase of Silver Cup Studios, learned Commercial Observer.

Of the $ 323 million funding, the Apollo funds provided $ 223 million and Deutsche Bank $ 100 million.

The deal is part of a strong third quarter for Apollo. The lender has racked up $ 1.1 billion in loan arrangements, including a $ 275 million variable rate mortgage for Properties of Silverstein” the acquisition of American Bank Tower – a deal that marked the owner’s first foray into the LA market.

“We had already carried out a number of financings for the equity group in partnership with Deutsche Bank, and it therefore made sense to partner with them again”, Scott weiner, senior partner and responsible for Apollo’s commercial real estate debt activities, said of the Silvercup deal.

“We know the studios and have spent a lot of time in space,” Weiner added. “It really is a top notch studio. COVID obviously had an impact, so that was part of the subscription because clearly – with the blockages – the shows were not being filmed. But, we’re thinking long term, given the race for content and the location of the studio, it does make sense. Sponsorship is excellent in terms of the ability to leverage those assets and the relationships they have.

The film and television studio platform includes 23 separate studios across three locations in Queens and the Bronx. CO first reported that Square Mile and Hackman Capital were in talks to purchase the iconic property back in june, and the deal was concluded on September 30.

“When COVID hit, we made the deals we were working on, and then we took a little break to manage our portfolio,” Weiner said. “We started to really see a pick-up in activity in May or June. The deals don’t close overnight, so it took a bit of time to rebuild the pipeline, resulting in third-quarter closures of over $ 1 billion. This pipeline continues to grow, as we probably still have a few billion fences online, and we are looking to continue to grow it. ”

The biggest deal of the quarter for Apollo was its $ 274.9 million floating rate acquisition loan for Silverstein’s acquisition of US Bank Tower, a 72-story, 1.4 million-dollar office building. square feet in downtown LA. The transaction closed on September 15.

“We believe in power, for the long term,” Weiner said. “We have followed the downtown LA market for years and viewed this property as a value that has been largely reset by COVID. We also think Silverstein and their partners got a really good deal on this. I think they weren’t necessarily the highest bidder, but were able to buy because of the certainty.

Apollo has already funded Silverstein. “We think of them very much, and considering this was their first move to Los Angeles, we felt they had done their homework,” Weiner said. “For us, we liked the base, and we don’t need the property to be 100 percent occupied for the business to work. So our approach was that we had the capital and that we thought it would be an interesting business for us. “

Other third quarter transactions included a $ 148.3 million variable rate mortgage on L Seven, a multi-family property in San Francisco owned by Brookfield Properties and AIG; a senior fixed rate mezzanine loan of $ 100 million, as part of a refinancing from Brookfield and Qatar Investment Authority ‘s A West Manhattan; and a $ 50 million mortgage for Potamkine Developmentthe renovation and expansion of an industrial property in Harlem, New York.

Regarding the opportunities that Apollo is considering at the end of 2020, “I would say that Apollo is definitely looking for struggling opportunities and recapitalizations in real estate, the corporate world and everything in between. in the United States, Europe and Asia, ”Weiner said. . “There hasn’t been as much distress as people expected in the United States, although obviously the hotel and retail industry is hit the hardest in terms of property types. But, Apollo really watches everything.

“Regarding the balance sheet of CRE’s lending activity, we have closed hotel and retail deals, we are reviewing office, industrial and self-service storage deals, as well as mortgage, mezz and construction finance. We take a transaction-to-transaction approach; we are looking at construction financing. While we have a lot in New York and have added New York with Silvercup and a few other offerings, we continue to look at other major markets like Chicago, San Francisco, and LA.