L+M picks up Hamilton Heights complex

Developer reaches 40-year deal to keep the Section 8 apartments affordable

Dunwell Apartments and Ron Moelis
Dunwell Apartments and Ron Moelis

L+M Development Partners dished out $43 million for Dunwell Apartments, a 183-unit Section 8 apartment complex in Hamilton Heights, the developer told The Real Deal.

The developer also reached a 40-year agreement with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to keep the units affordable and pledged to upgrade building security, lighting and apartment interiors. A separate deal with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development extends an existing four-year Section 8 agreement by 20 years, L+M said.

Metropolitan Realty Group is the seller, property records show.

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No brokers were involved in the deal. Signature Bank is financing the acquisition with a five-year, $32.3 million mortgage at a fixed interest rate of 3.5 percent.

The 15-story property at 1920 Amsterdam Avenue sits at the corner of West 155th Street, across the street from the Church of Intercession.

Last year L+M won city council approval to build a 1,045-unit megaproject in the South Bronx. The firm, head by Ron Moelis, recently tried to buy another Metropolitan Realty-owned building at 1680 Madison Avenue in East Harlem, but the deal fell through.

L+M’s largest current project is Essex Crossing, a $1.5 billion mixed-use development in the Lower East Side, which the firm is building in partnership with Taconic Investment Partners, BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. On Tuesday, the developers held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the project’s first completed building, a 99-unit affordable senior housing property at 175 Delancey Street.