WINDSOR, MASS. — MassHousing has provided $7.5 million in financing for Prospect Estates, a 25-unit multifamily property located in the western Massachusetts community of Windsor. The borrower, Affordable Housing & Services Collaborative, will use the proceeds to acquire and renovate the property. NEI General Contracting will handle renovations, which will include upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms, as well as building systems and exterior components. The development team will also preserve historic elements of the original structures, such as windows and wood flooring, and add a management office.
NEW YORK CITY — Law firm Scott + Scott LLP has signed a 21,365-square-foot office lease at 230 Park Avenue in Manhattan. The firm will relocate from a subleased space on the 17th floor to the entire 24th floor next summer. Erik Schmall and Scott Weiss of Savills represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Scott Klau, Brian Waterman, Erik Harris, Zach Weil and Cole Gendels of Newmark, along with internal agents William Elder, Andrew Ackerman and Walt Rooney, represented the landlord, RXR.
OCEANPORT, N.J. — Baseline Social, a bar, restaurant and entertainment concept, has opened a 17,100-square-foot venue in Oceanport, located in Monmouth County. Situated within The Commissary at Baseline, the space features a 640-foot LED viewing wall, 38-seat platform lounge and 3,700-square-foot entertainment section with five virtual golf bays. Other tenants at the property include Birdsmouth Beer and MGT Foods. Denholtz Properties is the developer and landlord at The Commissary.
NEW YORK CITY — Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) has announced formal plans to expand its office footprint within Hudson Yards, a mixed-use district on Manhattan’s west side. The San Francisco-based banking giant, which already occupies space within the $25 billion Hudson Yards campus, has purchased additional space from Related Cos., the master developer behind Hudson Yards along with Oxford Properties Group. Multiple media outlets have reported that Wells Fargo purchased the space at 20 Hudson Yards, which formally housed a Neiman Marcus store, for $550 million. The bank plans to convert the 400,000 square feet of space to offices in synergy with its current 500,000-square-foot footprint at 30 Hudson Yards, according to Bloomberg News. Forbes reported that the Neiman Marcus location closed in summer 2020. Wells Fargo plans to begin moving employees from its existing office space at 150 E. 42nd St. to the new Hudson Yards office beginning in late 2026. The property is expected to house 2,300 Wells Fargo employees at full operation. The 11-story building will also include a dedicated entrance on 10th Avenue and naming rights to Wells Fargo for signage on the exterior of the property. “This investment further solidifies our longstanding commitment …
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How to Clear Affordable Housing’s Construction Financing Hurdle
Developers are finding it tougher than ever to finance affordable housing. And often, the biggest hurdle for the sector’s borrowers involves construction — either obtaining that initial loan at a manageable cost or qualifying for take-out financing after a protracted construction period — which has strained resources and delivery schedules for a number of developments. Limitations on rent increases make the industry especially vulnerable to rising costs, and expenses today have risen precipitously across the board. Rents have also grown, but not on pace with construction and operating costs driven up by inflation, wage pressures, soaring insurance premiums and a series of interest rate hikes, observes Tracy Peters, a senior managing director on Lument’s affordable housing production team. “Borrowers are squeezed by a number of things in this marketplace,” Peters says. “The fed funds rate climbing 5 percent over the last two years means the interest rates on construction loans have basically come up 5 percent or more over that time. Now folks who had budgeted for a much lower interest rate — if they are still in construction mode — are trying to figure out how to deal with these higher interest rates.” At the same time, the …
CLARK, N.J. — JLL has arranged a $49.5 million loan for the refinancing of Walnut Hill, a 177-unit apartment complex in Clark, about 23 miles southwest of New York City. The newly built property features one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a fitness center, pool, clubhouse with lounges and a game room. About 15 percent (28 units) of the residences are reserved as affordable housing. Evan Pariser, Matthew Pizzolato and Jackie Ferrer of JLL arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate loan through Nationwide. The borrower was an affiliate of locally based developer Garden Communities.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based brokerage firm Rosewood Realty Group has negotiated the $8.9 million sale of a portfolio of three multifamily buildings totaling 28 units in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. The four-story building at 313 S. Fourth St. was built in 1915 and totals 12 units, and the two-building complex at 431-433 Wythe Ave. was constructed in 1920 and totals 16 units. Ben Khakshoor, Reoven Elharar and Alex Fuchs of Rosewood Realty represented the seller, a private investor, in the transaction and procured the buyer, Edifice Management.
NEW YORK CITY — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $3.4 million sale of an eight-unit apartment building located at 923 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood. The four-story building was originally constructed in 1901 and offers studio, one- and two-bedroom units. Daniel Greenblatt and Shaun Riney of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a family office, in the transaction and procured the buyer, an individual/personal trust.
CARLSTADT, N.J. — Seagis Property Group has purchased a 30,058-square-foot industrial building within Gotham Industrial Park in the Northern New Jersey community of Carlstadt. The building, which was vacant at the time of sale, sits on 1.5 acres and features a clear height of 16 feet, four loading docks and roughly 1,500 square feet of office space. Leo Josephs and Joshua Meisner of Leo Josephs & Co. represented Seagis, which plans to implement a value-add program, in the transaction. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
NEW YORK CITY — IMA New York, a division of insurance brokerage firm IMA Financial Group, has signed a 10,000-square-foot office lease at 1155 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term is 10 years. The tenant will occupy space on the 33rd floor of the 42-story building. Howard Hersch and Brett Harvey of JLL represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Tom Bow, Rocco Romeo and Nora Caliban internally represented the landlord, The Durst Organization, which recently completed a $130 million capital improvement program at the property.