Scale Lending originates $38M inventory loan for unsold UWS condos

Simon Baron reportedly sought a bulk buyer for the Chamberlain’s units with no success

Slate Property's CEO Martin Nussbaum (West End 87)
Slate Property's CEO Martin Nussbaum (West End 87)

Scale Lending recently provided a $38 million inventory loan for more than two dozen unsold units at a luxury condominium on the Upper West Side.

The borrower is Simon Baron Development Group, who, along with Quadrum Global, developed the Chamberlain, a 38-unit condo building at 269 West 87th Street.

Simon Baron did not return a request for comment.

The project is complete, but 25 units remain unsold, said Slate co-founder Martin Nussbaum, who explained that the loan provides financing for Simon Baron to complete the sell-out process for the remaining units.

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The loan’s term runs about two years, but Scale is willing to work with the borrower who, Nussbaum said, has the good product to “get through this difficult time.”

Manhattan’s luxury condo market was soft even before the pandemic, and the health crisis further weakened the demand. In June, the Chamberlain developer reportedly marketed the unsold units as a potential bulk deal with no success.

In the past 18 months, Slate Property Group and Scale Lending, a joint venture between Slate and the Carlyle Group, have originated nearly $700 million loans for developers in the Tri-State region and California, Nussbaum said.