New York Property Financing deal closed using Islamic struture

Maybank (Malaysia) and Warba Bank (Kuwait) led the financing or the property deal, which is the largest sharia compliant loan in New York for developer Sharif El-Gamal. The location of the proposed construction is two blocks from the World Trade Centre and the same location where in 2010 Sharif El-Gamal sparked controversy in 2010 for proposing to build a mosque.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo and MASIC, the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s Al Subeaei family, also participated in the loan package.

“This is one of the most difficult times in the post-Lehman construction market,” said Mr El-Gamal. “It doesn’t matter who you are, you cannot get conventional financing in New York” suggesting the deal was motivated more by need as opposed to desire to structure along the principles of Islamic finance.

2010 Mosque Controversy

The property was purchased for $4.85m in 2009 in order to build an Islamic centre, a plan which was soon abandoned. The proposal was met with hostility by opponents such as Sarah Palin who called it a “stab in the heart” to the families of 9/11 victims, though then New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg, defended it in the name of religious freedom.