Lending volume rose last week to $1B, and construction loans revived

By Adam Pincus

The total volume of lending rose to $1 billion last week, a 15 percent rise over the prior week’s total of $879 million. That’s also above the $900 million average since April 1, when the total dollar value of loans began to decline in New York City.

The increase was led by the $204 million condo inventory loan the Singapore-based United Overseas Bank provided to Alpha Investment Partners, also based in Singapore, which took control of the condo project 200 East 59th Street from Harry Macklowe, which has seen slow sales.

The bank also last week consolidated $67 million in loans it had given itself, secured by its New York headquarters building at 592 Fifth Avenue.

The number of construction loans increased as well, following the reopening of county clerk’s offices in May. Last week there were five construction loans filed, totaling $95 million.

The largest was Ekstein Development Group’s project in Brooklyn, where Citigroup has lent $45.5 million; another was Bawabeh Brothers project, at 1245 Bedford Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant where it obtained a loan from Investors Bank for $14.8 million; and Icon Realty Management, which was given a $13.85 million loan by M&T Bank for its East Village project at 21 Avenue B, where Icon is adding floors to an old law tenement building, among other changes.

Signature Bank was the most active among New York’s local lenders, by number of loans. It provided five loans totaling $73 million, the largest was to Yehoshua Fruchthandler.