Extell Development closed $1.25 billion in financing for The Torch, its mixed-use hotel and residential skyscraper going up in Times Square, according to Yahoo Finance and Construction Review, which both put the closed amount at $1.25 billion.

This is a construction loan on a job that's already rising, not a groundbreaking story. Extell has been building The Torch as a supertall on West 46th Street, and $1.25 billion is enough capital to carry the tower through a big chunk of vertical construction — framing, curtain wall, interior fit-out, the whole sequence a job this size runs through before it opens.

For NYC contractors, a financing close like this is the signal that matters more than any rendering. Money moving into a job means trade contracts are about to move too — mechanical, electrical, elevators, curtain wall installation, interior buildout for both the hotel floors and the residential floors above them. A billion-plus of construction financing on one address means years of subcontract work getting let in phases, not months.

Watch for GC and trade-contractor announcements tied to The Torch over the next several months — that's where the actual bid opportunities will surface, not in the financing news itself.