Walter & Samuels gets $60M refi for UWS middle school

Walter & Samuels pulled off a $60 million refinancing of its Upper West Side building that houses the West End Secondary School, which opened in 2015, sources told The Real Deal.

The three-story, 75,000-square-foot property at 227-241 West 61st Street offers a total of 160,000 buildable square feet. But the David Berley-led investment firm, which paid $31.2 million for the building in 2005, has yet to take advantage of it.

Midtown-based investment adviser Allegiant Real Estate Capital provided the 10-year, interest-only refinancing, according to JLL [TRDataCustom], which brokered the loan.

The New York City School Construction Authority fully leases the property and is in the process of a $20 million renovation to modernize the school space. The Beacon School, an alternative public high school, long occupied the space until it relocated to 522 West 44th Street in 2015. The West End Secondary School, a public middle school that is expected to grow to include grades sixth through 12th by 2012, now operates there.

JLL’s Dustin Stolly and Brett Rosenberg brokered the financing. Walter & Samuels principal Peter Weiss and Allegiant’s Ben Milde also led the deal.

“The city is there for the duration with plans to renovate for the long-term,” Weiss said.

In recent months, Walter & Samuels secured $50 million from Apple Savings to refinance 419 Park Avenue South and bought a NoMad six-story office building at 130 Madison Avenue for $14.5 million.