Goldman teams up with developer on $100M real estate investment fund

Goldman Sachs is teaming up with L&M Development Partners and launching a $100 million urban investment fund aimed at mixed-income housing and other projects in New York and other U.S. cities.

Goldman’s Urban Investment Group has worked with Westchester-based L&M in the past on New York projects, including the Aspen, a mixed-income apartment building in East Harlem and the Kalahari, a new 249-unit luxury condominium on 116th Street.

However, according to Alicia Glenn, managing director of Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group, “this is the first exclusive relationship” Goldman has had with one its operating partners.

The two entities said they are currently working on about 15 potential projects in New York and California, but they declined to give any specifics.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Their new joint projects could be modeled on what they have already done together. The Kalahari — which Harlem-based developer Full Spectrum of NY was also involved in — was built on city-owned land and will include 120 subsidized units that will be available to middle-income tenants making between $63,810 and $131,165 per year for a family of four. The building is about 70 percent pre-sold, with market rate apartments starting at about $500,000. Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the completed building on Monday and occupancy is set for May.

Located at 40 West 116th Street, the building will include a movie theater as well as ground-floor Retail On The 116th Street side.

The building was financed with $8.2 million in mezzanine financing from Goldman Sachs and $2.7 million in grants from the New York State Affordable Housing Corp. JPMorgan Chase helped syndicate a $95 million construction loan among five lenders, including Washington Mutual, Deutsche Bank, Capital One Bank, Carver Bank and Commerce Bank.

The new fund, which is likely to help them tap into government financing for their projects, will operate under the name GSLM Capital Partners and will be headed by Larry Florin, a former division president at Lennar Corp. in Weehawken, N.J.