Brookfield’s $438M Bronx deal tops outer-borough loans

The 10 largest real estate loans recorded in New York City’s outer boroughs in March totaled $1.03 billion, about half the amount seen in March 2021, when refinancing deals dominated in the grip of the pandemic, but higher than February’s $820 million.

Five of the 10 loans were issued in the Bronx, four in Queens and three in Brooklyn (one loan went to a portfolio spanning all three boroughs). Multifamily properties proved credit-worthy as rents have largely recovered from the pandemic, while industrial and self-storage were also popular among lenders.

Here are details:

1. Banking on the riverbank | $438 million

Brookfield received $438 million from Apollo Global Management to build a 982,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 101 Lincoln Avenue in Mott Haven. The 25-story South Bronx development will have 921 residential units. Apollo’s loan originates $369 million in debt and consolidates an existing $69.5 million mortgage acquired from HSBC.

The site is part of a larger Brookfield project that will cover 4.3 acres and yield more than 1,350 apartments, 30 percent of which will be affordable.

2. Rate lock | $210 million

Rockrose Development refinanced debt at 47-05 Center Boulevard, a luxury apartment building with 396 units in Long Island City, with a $210 million loan from MetLife. Interest on the 15-year loan was locked in December and includes $83.7 million in new proceeds from the Queens West Development Corporation, a non-profit operated by the State of New York that oversees the redevelopment of former industrial waterfront property along the East River.

3. King of Queens | $130 million

Douglas Eisenberg’s A&E Real Estate used a $103 million acquisition loan from Signature Bank to buy the 22-building Cunningham Heights apartment complex in Queens Village — the biggest multifamily deal in Queens since the start of the pandemic. A&E spent $130 million for the more than 1,000-unit, 1950s-era complex.

4. Warehouse web | $61 million

Logistics investor Seagis Property Group received $60.8 million in loan proceeds from JPMorgan Chase to refinance seven industrial properties spanning 200,000 square feet in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The largest single loan of $20.8 million was secured by a 67,000-square-foot warehouse at 57-00 49th Place in Maspeth, Queens, where plans were filed last summer to install refrigerant compressor units on the roof.

5. Storage spread | $56 million

Brookfield Property Group used $56.3 million in loan proceeds from Wells Fargo to buy self-storage buildings in Clinton Hill, East New York and Bushwick, Brooklyn, for $90 million. Wells Fargo originated $14.3 million in debt and consolidated prior loans on the properties.

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6. Atlanta calling | $49 million

Storage Post, an Atlanta-based operator of self-storage facilities, used a $48.75 million loan from JPMorgan Chase to buy a 3,300-unit storage building at 3350 Park Avenue, plus an adjacent parking lot, in the Morrisania section of the Bronx for $64 million. The loan originated $23.3 million in proceeds, and refinanced prior debt held by Santander Bank.

7. Getting there | $40 million

Connecticut-based Dynamic Star received $40 million in loan proceeds, including a new $15.5 million gap loan, from Columbia Pacific at 320 West Fordham Road in the Bronx. The funds replace debt held by BH3 Management. Dynamic Star filed plans in November for a four-building project with 602 residential units at the University Heights site.

8. Zoo life | $29 million

Omni New York received a $28.6 million loan from the Merchants Bank of Indiana secured by multifamily properties at 711 Garden Street and 2260 Crotona Avenue in East Tremont, the Bronx, which combine for 277 units. Omni bought the buildings, which are near the Bronx Zoo, in 2010.

9. Gone shopping | $25 million

AAG Management refinanced a 97,000-square-foot shopping center at 132-01 20th Avenue in College Point, Queens, with a $25 million loan from the Reinsurance Group of America. The Missouri-based lender originated nearly $1 million in debt and replaced loans held by New York Community Bank. The building is occupied by a ShopRite supermarket and a Petco.

10. Bed-Stuy rental | $23 million

BRP Companies and the non-profit Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation received a $23.2 million loan from the Merchants Bank of Indiana at 1320 Fulton Street, a 57-unit rental building in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Construction was completed in 2017 at a cost of $21 million, according to BRP.