Billy Macklowe, A&E scored biggest outer-borough loans

The 10 biggest real estate loans in New York City’s outer boroughs last month fetched $535.5 million. They included financing for the biggest development site in Park Slope, an Astoria co-op with a checkered financial history and part of a 14-building portfolio recently sold by the LeFrak Organization.

Half of the loans were made in Brooklyn, while Queens had four and the Bronx had one. Last year, November’s biggest loans totaled $749 million. Here are more details on this year’s.

Mack attack | $143 million

The William Macklowe Company and Senlac Ridge Partners, a private equity firm formed by David Welsh, landed $143 million from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank to build a 180-unit multifamily building, with 25 percent of the units affordable, on the biggest development site in Park Slope, at 120 Fifth Avenue. The building will have 67,000 square feet of retail space with grocer Lidl as the anchor tenant; CVS will take about 10,000 square feet. The project, which replaces a Key Food and a large parking lot, is on a site bordered by Gregory Place and Baltic Street.

Co-op chaos | $68.5 million

The Acropolis Gardens, a 16-building cooperative complex with 618 apartments in Astoria, Queens, refinanced debt with a $68.5 million loan from Citi Real Estate Funding, including nearly $16 million in new funds. Citi replaced Wells Fargo as the lender, which sought to foreclose on the property after missed monthly mortgage payments in 2018 owed to CMBS investors. The same year, Michael Leifer, who owned 110 apartments in Acropolis Gardens, sued Metropolitan Pacific Properties CEO Steve Osman, who managed Acropolis Gardens, and the co-op board for allegedly looting the building’s coffers. The co-op received a $7.7 million rescue loan from Bayport Funding in 2019.

Le closèd | $55.5 million

A&E Real Estate received $28 million and $27.5 million from Signature Bank to buy two 188-unit, 194,000-square-foot apartment buildings at 2775 East 12th Street and 2750 Homecrest Avenue in Brighton Beach from the LeFrak Organization for $78 million. The loan was part of a $195 million financing package, including $25 million in equity from InterVest Capital Partners, to buy 14 Brooklyn properties with 1,217 units, mainly in Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay, for $250 million. Wells Fargo was the prior lender.

Office outlook | $55 million

Connecticut-based Chase Enterprises refinanced a 14-story, 564,000-square-foot office building at Fordham Plaza in Belmont, the Bronx, with $55 million from Nationwide Life Insurance Company. The loan includes $3 million in new funds and replaces AIG as the lender. The commercial and transportation hub at 440 East Fordham Road, near the original Fordham University campus, connects to Metro-North.

For Fruchthandler’s sake | $50 million

The Fruchthandler clan’s FBE Limited used $50 million from Valley National Bank to buy a land parcel with 557,000 square feet of development potential in Jamaica, Queens, along 165th Street and Merrick Boulevard. FBE plans a large, mixed-use project on the 2.6-acre site.

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Storage galore | $50 million

Self-storage firm InSite Property Group refinanced a 101,000-square-foot building at 59-20 Borden Avenue in Maspeth, Queens, with nearly $50 million from Goldman Sachs. The loan includes $24 million in new funds secured by a gap mortgage and replaces about $26 million in construction loans provided by Valley National Bank in March 2021. Industrial property investor GLP Capital Partners acquired a 68 percent stake in the property in August for $63 million as part of a $1.5 billion investment fund dubbed GCP SecureSpace Property Partners. InSite bought the site for the building from Home Depot last year for $18 million.

Shelter spender | $35 million

Dime Community Bank refinanced a 49,000-square-foot hotel building cum homeless shelter at 170-01 Douglas Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, with a $35 million loan, replacing Golden Bridge Funding as the lender. Bowery Residents Committee was awarded a $65 million contract from the city in March to operate the 165-unit facility. The owner of the building, Douglas Holdings LLC, uses a post office box in the Nassau County hamlet of Inwood.

Fruchthandler over-Haul | $28.5 million

Limited liability companies tied to Yehoshua Leib Fruchthandler’s FBE Limited used $28.5 million from Signature Bank to buy a 235,000-square-foot development site zoned for single family housing at 2124 Mill Avenue in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. FBE paid $40.5 million for the site, which has been a U-Haul truck rental operation.

Alive in Do-or-Die | $26 million

Armin Baratian refinanced a 46-unit apartment building completed this year at 1259 Bedford Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, with $25.8 million from Amalgamated Bank. The loan includes $7 million in new funds and replaces Investors Bank as the lender.

Bed-Stuy refi | $24 million

Hillel Fischman refinanced a 45,000-square-foot residential building at 281 Tompkins Avenue, also known as 420 Lexington Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant with $24.4 million from Webster Bank, replacing Investors Bank as the lender. The building is marketed as luxury rentals, but structured as three condominium units, including the building’s parking lot. Abraham Waldman is also a sponsor of the building.