Hope Street Capital signs $55M refi with Walker & Dunlop for 158-unit project in Crown Heights

Hope Street Capital through the entity 959 Sterling Lessee LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Walker & Dunlop through the entity WD Reigl Multifamily I LLC valued at $55 million for five the 158-unit rental building at 959 Sterling Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The developer filed last month to divide the building into five commercial condominium units, and this loan is secured by all of those, which are a community facility unit, two parking units and two residential apartment units. The new building job 321384471 was filed in 2018 and permitted in 2021. The city has not yet issued the buildings its initial certificate of occupancy, a review of city records shows.
The deal closed on June 12, 2024 and was recorded on July 2, 2024. The prior lender was Slate Property Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $55 million.
The signatory for Hope Street Capital was Jeffrey Gershon. The signatory for Walker & Dunlop was Terri Magnani. Hope Street Capital is the ground tenant, with Safehold, Inc. the fee owner and landlord.

The block

On the tax block of 959 Sterling Place, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the four commercial properties representing 59,704 square feet of the 68,039 square feet. The two identified owners are Northeastern Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists and Hope Street Capital.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 206,192 square feet. It is a 201-unit, 206,192 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Northeastern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and filed by Daniel Honore with plans filed September 26, 2018 and permitted December 23, 2021.

The majority, or 88 percent of the 68,039 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Hope Street Capital owned at least four commercial properties with 264 residential units in New York City with 300,050 square feet and a city-determined market value of $38.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $310.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Square Mile Capital Management, MF1 Capital, and Slate Property Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 80 percent of the 300,050 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with M1 properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 95 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 5 percent of the space.

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