Lam Group scores $168M for Apollo Theater residential project

Tower comes as part of larger Victoria Theater redevelopment project

Slate Property Group's David Schwartz and Martin Nussbaum, Lam Group's John Lam and rendering of Victoria Tower (Slate Property Group, Lam Group, Aufgang Architects, Apollo Theatre)
Slate Property Group's David Schwartz and Martin Nussbaum, Lam Group's John Lam and rendering of Victoria Tower (Slate Property Group, Lam Group, Aufgang Architects, Apollo Theatre)

A long-brewing development that will bring apartments, retail and more arts to an uptown cultural center has fresh legs.

Lam Group and Exact Capital Group scored a $167.5 million construction loan on the Victoria Tower in Harlem, their ground-up development two buildings east of the Apollo Theater.

The building at 233 West 125th Street will include 191 rentals, including 103 set aside for people or couples earning between 50 and 130 percent of the area median income. Its clear glass façade will create a 26-story backdrop for the historic theater where American musical icons like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown cut their teeth.

The building is part of the larger Victoria Theater redevelopment project, which has been in the works since 2005. It will rejuvenate the former movie theater and vaudeville house that shuttered in 1997.

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“Projects like this don’t come around often,” said David Schwartz of Slate Property Group, the construction lender.

The redevelopment will install two black box theaters, both operated by the Apollo, with a total of 298 seats. It will give the Apollo space to continue performances while it undergoes its own renovations.

The overarching Victoria project will also bring a 210-key Marriott Renaissance hotel and 24,000 square feet of retail space to 125th Street. Construction on the Victoria Tower is already well underway, but the new funds from Slate Property Group will refinance the $132 million in debt previously issued on the project from Goldman Sachs.

The financing was arranged by Two Bins Capital.