Stalled 160 Imlay Condo in Red Hook Gets Inventory Loan

Italian developer Est4te Four closed a $74 million inventory loan for its stalled, 70-unit condominium in Red Hook.

The project, at 160 Imlay Street, has been in various stages of development for eight years. Churchill Real Estate Holdings provided the new financing, which closed late last month. It replaces a $79.4 million construction loan from Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance. Maverick Capital Partners’ Adi Church represented Est4te Four.

The developer bought 160 Imlay, a former New York Dock Company warehouse, for $25.1 million in 2012. It launched sales in 2014 with prices starting at $1.28 million. But a series of construction snafus caused several setbacks.

Churchill’s loan covers 70 condos and 78 parking spaces. Sources said 35 units are currently in contract with hard deposits.

Est4te Four also owns a commercial condo at 50 Varick Street. It was going to build a $400 million tech complex in Red Hook — at 219 Sullivan Street, 68 and 100 Ferris Street, and 202 and 242 Coffey Street — but sold the assemblage for $110 million after the plan fell through.

Churchill, led by Justin Ehrlich, owns a dozen properties in New York, but it is better known for its $1.5 billion debt platform. Last year, it raised a distressed fund in response to cracks in New York’s condo market.

As condo sales have slowed, inventory loans are on the rise among the city’s developers. And bankers are ready to pounce as developers’ construction loans come due.

The same is true for developers who are in the lending game: Silverstein Properties, for example, is looking to double its lending to more than $1 billion this year by focusing on inventory in the luxury condo market.