Carmel Partners signs $153M construction loan with Northwestern Mutual for 94-unit project in Lenox Hill

Carmel Partners through the entity CP VII 78th Street Owner, LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance valued at $153 million for the 94-unit development at 1487 First Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan.
On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 94-unit, 160,641 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Carmel Partners and filed by Matthew Feldman with plans filed January 24, 2022 and permitted June 8, 2022.
The loan closed on September 7, 2023 and was recorded on September 19, 2023. The loan price per project square foot is $952 per the PincusCo analysis.
The owner bought the property on January 6, 2022, for $73.5 million. The signatory for Carmel Partners was Phillip Owens.

The property

The zoning is C2-8 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.4 million. The most recent loan totaled $7.3 million and was provided by Investors Bank on March 26, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations and $350 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has 3.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 19 of the 32 commercial properties representing 200,507 square feet of the 301,510 square feet. The largest owner is Salvatore Gaudio, followed by Rachel Glasser and then Lee Rothman.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 160,641 square feet. It is a 94-unit, 160,641 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Carmel Partners and filed by Matthew Feldman with plans filed January 24, 2022 and permitted June 8, 2022.

The majority, or 72 percent of the 301,510 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Carmel Partners owned at least nine commercial properties with 164 residential units in New York City with 119,311 square feet. The portfolio has $787.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and PCCP respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 88 percent of the 119,311 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 7 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 3 percent of the space.

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