These were the top 10 outer borough loans in April

Downtown Brooklyn took the top two spots for April’s largest outer borough loans by extremely wide margins.

The neighborhood took the No. 1 spot with a $429 million loan from Silverstein Capital and Otera Capital for 9 DeKalb Avenue and the No. 2 spot with a $330 million loan from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America for 333 Schermerhorn Street. These were the only loans on April’s list to crack the $100 million mark.

A Downtown Brooklyn loan was in third place as well, thanks to LoanCore Capital lending Muss Development $90 million for 350 Jay Street.

Overall, April’s list was split between five Brooklyn loans, four Queens loans and one Bronx loan. No loans from Staten Island made the cut.

The full list of the top 10 outer borough loans for April is as follows:

1. Que Otera, Otera – $429 million
   The top outer borough loan for April was about $429 million from Silverstein Capital and Otera Capital for JDS Development’s 9 DeKalb Avenue, which will be the tallest tower in Brooklyn. The project will stand 1,066 feet tall with 400 rental units, 150 condos and 120,000 square feet of retail space, and it should be finished by 2022. The loan is the first from Silverstein Capital, which Larry Silverstein’s eponymous development company recently established as its lending arm.
2. Hot for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – $330 million
   Second place went to a $330 million refinancing at 333 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. It replaces a 2015 $300 million construction loan from Bank of America. The loan coincided with Steiner NYC selling its majority stake in the 55-story building known as the Hub to JPMorgan in a deal worth $253 million.
3. Don’t Muss This Up – $90 million
   Muss Development landed a $90 million loan from LoanCore Capital for its Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza project at 350 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The loan will finance part of the office condo within the mixed-use complex and was backed by an approximately 298,000-square-foot office condo spanning the 24th through 32nd floors, according to the Commercial Observer.
4. Community Service – $79.4 million
   Queens made its first appearance on the list at the No. 4 spot with a roughly $79.4 million loan from New York Community Bank to Shibber Khan’s Criterion Group for 11-35 49th Avenue in Long Island City. The 12-story property contains 194 units, and the loan includes a gap mortgage worth $23.3 million.
5. Storytime – $63 million
   The Bronx came in at the No. 5 spot with a $63 million loan from Signature Bank to Abraham Fructhandler’s FBE for 2001-2045 Story Avenue. The deal includes a gap mortgage for $20.1 million. FBE had purchased the pair of nine-story buildings from Related Fund Management for about $88 million in April, the largest single-asset sale in the Bronx in six years.
6. Flight of the Phoenix – $61 million
   Bank OZK provided Alloy Development and the Davis Companies with a $61 million construction and acquisition loan for 42 and 50 Jay Street in Dumbo, which the firms plan to convert into luxury condos. The developers bought the properties from the nonprofit rehab center Phoenix House for $52.3 million and plan to finish the 46-unit complex by 2021.
7. The First Colony Credit – $60.9 million
   Colony Credit Real Estate provided Related Companies and Green Oak Real Estate with a roughly $60.9 million loan for the Blanchard Building at 21-09 Borden Avenue in Long Island City for the No. 7 spot. The floating-rate debt replaces more than $64 million in debt that TPG Real Estate Finance Trust provided to the companies after they bought the building in 2016 for $62.5 million. They have since completed $15 million worth of renovations to the building, which is home to the digital agency VaynerMedia and spans about 220,000 square feet.
8. Mr. Rogers Avenue – $51 million
   Merchants Capital provided this loan to Heights Advisors for a refinancing at 267 Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights. The deal includes $41 million in new mortgages.
9. California Queens – $43.1 million
   Nuveen gave RXR Realty and California-based LBA Realty a $43.1 million mortgage to purchase a trio of Queens development sites at 54-15, 55-15 and 56-19 Grand Avenue. The two firms bought the sites for $72 million, and they may try leasing the site out to the NYPD, which had been in talks with the seller Cascade to use them as a storage facility.
10. President Kennedy – $39 million
    The final loan was for $39 million from Sterling National Bank for the Radisson Hotel by JFK Airport at 135-30 140th Street. The refinancing replaces the previous loan from Ladder Capital and adds a $6 million gap mortgage.