A note to Insiders: Yesterday’s big Pfizer news necessitated shelving what we had prepped for you and instead diving into the action here 👇 Expect your exclusive content later this week tho, and hope you find today’s ed. valuable too – HS

This deal is turning out to be anything but aggravation-free. ☹

The mammoth office-resi redevelopment of the fmr. Pfizer HQ in Midtown Manhattan had a major scare Tuesday, when project workers discovered buckled columns and bending beams on the 21st floor. Workers were evacuated from the property, as were tenants from nearby office buildings as a safety measure. What started out as a local news story quickly spawned blanket coverage across the business press, and even reignited the perennial debate about whether such conversions are worth the trouble. Nathan Berman, the principal of project co-developer Metro Loft and the city’s poster child for office-resi conversions, went into triage mode: He had to downplay fears that the building would collapse – a lose-lose endeavor, because whatever you say results in a shit headline.

By Wednesday, it appears the building had been stabilized. Newsrooms will continue to monitor the situation; what we were more interested in at The Promote tho, is what the past 24h have looked like for all the parties – the developers, the lenders, the construction crews, the pols – who’ve bet on this project, and what’s keeping them up in the weeks ahead. 👇

This week on the pod, we wade into the underbelly of big-ticket restructuring, looking at Pimco’s lifeline on its disastrous Columbia Property Trust office bet, and how the lenders that stepped in after the default (Greenbarn/Axonic) set themselves up for a massive payday. It’s a valuable lens into the opportunities available deep in the nethers of the capstack. Next, we have to revisit the saga of S2 Capital's Scott Everett, the GP who’s now declared that his $400M multifamily fund is a total loss. We sensed this was coming, but it still hits, and we dive into both the business and reputational aspects of the wipeout. Plus, our Punch List rundown of the newsiest industry happenings: RFR Realty succession; Sergey Brin's NYC rent-stabilized misadventure; Miami condo buyout aces; Kayne Anderson gobbled up.

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The developers - Nathan Berman & David Werner: Berman has likely been running on fumes since yesterday, huddling with his contractors at the site to figure out exactly what happened, assuaging the concerns of his lender and LPs, blowing up his insurer’s phone, dealing with city officials who’ve made the Pfizer HQ such a showpiece project in their office-resi push, and playing defense in the press. Berman dismissed the structural concerns as “very small,” in an interview w/ Bloomberg, adding that “people are smart enough to understand that this is something that’s happening during construction.” It’s unclear how much of a construction delay the incident will cause, and Berman said a full investigation is underway. He made sure to pay homage to the city, saying that “if we had a real problem at the building, this would have been a very important step, and they wisely took it.”

Meanwhile, Werner, Berman’s press-allergic deal junkie partner in this caper, will likely remain deep in the background; don’t expect to hear directly from him during this process, though the incident did result in him getting an unwanted snapshot in frum-focused VIN News.

Two more headaches Berman’s likely grappling with: He is constantly raising capital and generating media buzz for such thesis-driven bets, and an incident like this, even if it turns out to be minor, is a narrative black eye that makes conversations w/ prospective LPs trickier – headline risk is something institutional investors obsess about. 🗞 Meanwhile, what does it do to leasing prospects? Memories are thankfully short, but any Googling of this address by a prospective renter will pull all this up.

The lender – Madison Realty Capital: Madison set a record for the city’s largest office-resi loan last spring, when it gave the developers $720M (loan basis: $550/ 🦶 or ≈$450K/ 🚪 ), split into a sr. note and mezz. (Madison will often back-lever the A-note, as seems to be the case here.) Besides check-ins w/ Berman, the shop likely spent the day making sure that all their 🦆🦆🦆 are in a row from an insurance standpoint, all the certs. were up to snuff, etc. As the lender, it’d most likely be first in line to get the insurance check if it comes down to that. It’d also be in touch with its warehouse lender (appears by the notation to be an SPE w/ a line to Morgan Stanley here), making sure they’re aware of the incident and that they know Madison’s on top of it. In the unlikely event of any shtick, it’d take a close look at the loan’s Bad Boy carveouts. If the situation doesn’t escalate, Madison’s job is just to telegraph calm and take a “these things happen” attitude. Berman told Bloomberg the incident wouldn’t impact the loan, saying in an apparent re. to completion guarantees that “we are ahead of schedule in the building anyways.”

The city & the unions: Such a high-profile incident is a hiccup for the city’s office-resi push, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani put himself front and center Tuesday, describing it as “an extremely serious situation” in a joint press conf. with the Fire chief. Gov. Hochul also weighed in. Local news site The City found a history of construction-safety violations at the site, though nothing in ‘26. A rep for the steamfitters’ union working on the project chimed in w/ a spicy quote, saying that “the I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous.” He added, “they chose profit over safety and put my members, as well as every construction worker over here, in jeopardy.” (Berman dismissed that claim as “total nonsense.”) Expect Mamdani admin. officials to demand detailed updates from the development team in coming weeks.

The GC & subs: Metro Loft tends to self-perform on complex office-resi jobs; that’s where the real returns are made. The GC in charge here is the firm’s Rob Travis, who’ll have a busy fortnight. Here are some general explanations as to how this could’ve gone down, according to GC sources who’ve worked on similar jobs in the past.

1. A couple of columns were not reinforced per the structural design: This is what happened, in Berman’s telling. Our source felt this could’ve resulted from either a field error or the columns not yet being accessible for reinforcement. “This happens, especially when you have a ginormous job site and they had already reported topping out, which tends to mean that the structural work had been completed. The images and videos I’ve seen from the interior support that line of thinking, as metal framing and drywall were already installed in some of the areas that buckled.”
2. The structural engineer either missed the columns or miscalculated how much reinforcement they needed: Here’s the source again: “In old buildings like this one, where a portion dates to the early 1900s and the tower to 1960, there is a lot we simply don’t know about the existing structure. Back then, a lateral system was not required in buildings, as it was a relatively new structural concept in commercial construction, and the software we use now to calculate all the forces had probably not yet been invented.”
3. Someone did something stupid: 🤷

Insurance cos: A bevy of insurance cos ✍ ✍ ✍ for all affiliated parties will be working the phones overtime. What happened? Who’s responsible? Who’s on the hook for what? Who gets paid first? If things go truly south here, what happens to premiums on jobs going forward? (If anyone has more insight into how this process works, def reach out by replying to this email.)

Peer developers & lenders: A baker’s dozen of big-name developers are also deep in the office resi-game, among them Vanbarton (as prolific as Berman), InterVest ( we broke down the financing quest at 111 Wall in-depth), RXR ( its equity etch-a-sketch at 5 Times Square) & Yellowstone (MONY MONY Money). Backing them are a crop of lenders incl. Apollo, Brookfield, Eldridge & Corebridge. All these parties will be communicating with their borrowers/lenders/brokers/LPs in coming weeks. Investing, as much as anything else, is about narrative and momentum, and they’ll be hoping this incident is just a blip. 🚧