Fairstead signs $48.5M refi with Berkadia for five rentals in Longwood

Fairstead through the entity PRC Westchester Avenue LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Berkadia Commercial Mortgage through the entity Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC valued at $48.5 million for five properties with 411 residential units including the 236-unit rental condo at 975 Simpson St in Longwood, Bronx, 54-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 1240 Westchester Avenue in Longwood, Bronx, and 46-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 1075 Longfellow Avenue in Longwood, Bronx.
The deal closed on May 30, 2025 and was recorded on July 21, 2025. The five properties have 573,208 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $84 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Fairstead was Jeffrey Goldberg .

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received 142 housing violations, $4,280 in OATH penalties, and one housing litigation in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On the tax block of 975 Simpson St, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 27 commercial properties representing 520,828 square feet of the 784,715 square feet. The largest owner is Ben Hur Investments, followed by Nuveen Real Estate and then Ashkenazy Acquisition.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 291,337 square feet. The largest is a 278-unit, 183,964 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Atlantic Development Group and filed by Peter Fine with plans filed April 16, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 107,373 square-foot educational (E) building submitted by Atlantic Development Group and filed by Peter Fine with plans filed January 11, 2021 and permitted September 15, 2021.

The majority, or 45 percent of the 784,715 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Fairstead owned at least 255 commercial properties with 7,144 residential units in New York City with 6,466,069 square feet and a city-determined market value of $768.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $568 million in debt, with top three lenders as NewPoint Real Estate Capital, Merchants Capital, and Greystone & Co. respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 70 percent of the 6,466,069 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 27 percent of the space. The bulk, or 37 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 34 percent of the space.

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