Mayer Leifer signs $4.6M construction loan with S3 Capital to build 20 units in Harlem

Mayer Leifer through the entity 70-78 West 126 Street LLC as borrower signed a renovation construction loan with lender S3 Capital through the entity S3 Re Funding III LLC valued at $4.6 million for four properties from 70 to 78 West 126th Street.

Two of the parcels, the former church at 74 West 126th Street and the adjacent vacant lot at 78 West 126th Street are to be merged into one tax lot, 65, where Leifer has filed a plan M01064563 to convert the church building into 20 residential apartments.
The loan closed on April 30, 2025 and was recorded on June 18, 2025. The four properties have 11,496 square feet of built space and 10,991 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 22,482 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $400 and the price per buildable square foot is $204 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 Mayer Leifer was Mayer Leifer.

Leifer paid $3.5 million on April 30, 2025, for the properties from the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America.

The property

The zoning is R6A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing.

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 one DOB violation and $450 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Harlem, The bulk, or 43 percent of the 81.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Harlem has 2.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $781.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. For development, Harlem has 3.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 4.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 78 West 126th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 31 commercial properties representing 248,869 square feet of the 643,603 square feet. The largest owner is Alex Adjmi, followed by Rockfeld Group and then Denali Management.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 119,064 square feet. It is a 162-unit, 119,064 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Mark Irgang with plans filed March 21, 2022 and permitted June 7, 2022.

The majority, or 46 percent of the 643,603 square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Mayer Leifer owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 11,496 square feet and a city-determined market value of $770,800. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 82 percent of the 11,496 square feet of built space are M1 properties, with M3 properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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