Bentley Zhao’s New Empire lands $45M loan for LIC condos

Slate is the lender

37-14 34th Street in Long Island City, Martin Nussbaum, Bentley Zhao, and David Schwartz
37-14 34th Street in Long Island City, Martin Nussbaum, Bentley Zhao, and David Schwartz

Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Real Estate Development landed a $45 million construction loan for its Long Island City condominium project from Slate Property Group’s new lending arm, SPG Capital Partners.

New Empire plans to build a 115,000-square-foot project at 37-14 34th Street. The company is an extremely active developer throughout the city, with condo projects on the Lower East Side, Midtown West, and several in Brooklyn.

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Martin Nussbaum and David Schwartz’s Slate launched its lending platform in February, with a goal of issuing $500 million in loans this year. With the latest deal, it has issued $150 million in loans, the company said, including a condo inventory loan for $87 million and another $19 million loan to finance Solomon Feder’s acquisition of a development site at 45-57 Davis Street, also in Long Island City.

In March, Slate bought a nearby development site at 37-11 30th Street for $33.3 million. The company is close to a deal to buy the Biltmore apartment tower in Manhattan with GreenOak Real Estate for more than $250 million. GreenOak is also Slate’s capital partner on RiverTower, a large rental building in Midtown East.