Avdoo Nabs $105 Million Loan for Boerum Hill Condo Project

Shlomi Avdoo landed a construction loan as his firm tops out its condo project in Boerum Hill.

Valley National Bank lent $105 million to Avdoo & Partners Development for its project at 323 Bergen Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood, the Commercial Observer reported. The senior construction loan is “an exciting step” in the project, Avdoo’s principal and founder said in a statement.

The seven-story condo development will span 243,000 square feet and have 105 units — one for every million dollars borrowed.

The project, designed by GF55 Partners, is going up four blocks from Barclays Center. It will include 25,000 square feet of amenities.

Construction had nearly topped out early this month. Individual unit sales are expected to begin next year.

The Bergen Street project is not the first Boerum Hill development for Avdoo. A couple of years ago, the company opened Saint Marks Place at 55 Saint Marks Place, a 100-unit, 200,000-square-foot luxury condo.

Other projects by the developer include a 53,000-square-foot, 29-unit property in Harlem and a 6,000-square-foot retail property in Dumbo.

This year featured several large condo loans in New York City, despite higher interest rates and tighter lending standards that made financing difficult throughout the commercial market. This month, Miki Naftali landed $236 million from J.P. Morgan and Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital for a 62-unit project on the Upper East Side.

Valley National Bank has taken on a larger role in New York City lending. According to an analysis by The Real Deal of mortgages recorded in the city between July 2022 and July 2023, the bank jumped from the No. 12 most active lender in the city the previous year to No. 5.

A big part of that was the bank’s acquisition of the United States division of Israel’s Bank Leumi International.

— Holden Walter-Warner