ACORE Capital lends $45.5M to refinance 511 Fifth Avenue

ACORE Capital supplied a $45.5 million nonrecourse loan to refinance 511 Fifth Avenue, an 18-story Midtown Manhattan office building owned by a joint venture of Wharton Properties, Aurora Capital Associates and ACHS Management. Commercial Observer first reported the refinancing.

The report said GE Aerospace and WeWork each signed two-floor deals, French consulting firm Wavestone took 9,812 square feet, and North Face opened a two-story, 21,000-square-foot flagship at the base of the tower in November 2025. The 1918 property, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, was recently redeveloped with 16,000 square feet of renovated space.

Meridian Capital Group negotiated the debt with a team led by Aaron Birnbaum. "With new tenants signing while the loan was in process, our focus was keeping ACORE and the sponsors moving in lockstep as the rent roll grew," Birnbaum, a co-founder and executive vice president at Meridian, said in a statement.

As this publication has argued, the refinancing wall is an equity problem more than a debt crisis, with occupied buildings failing tests because income has not kept pace with the cost of capital.