Sunlight Dev. signs $50M loan with NuVerse affiliate for resi conversion in NoMad

Sunlight Development through the entity Madison 29 Holding LLC as borrower signed a $50 million acquisition loan with an affiliate of NuVerse Advisors as lender, through the entity S3 Lender MA LLC, for the office building (O6) at 95 Madison Avenue in NoMad, Manhattan. The city designated the building an individual city landmark in 2018.

Sunlight Development bought the building for $65 million with plans to convert it to a 70-unit residential building, as PincusCo was the first to report.
The sale and the loan closed on June 5, 2024 and were recorded on June 14, 2024. The prior lender was Goodman Capital which held debt that had an original loan amount of $23 million.

The property has 146,161 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $342 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 guarantors  for Sunlight Development were Hanjun Bai, Linzhong Zhuo, Linlin Zhuo, and Hen Huang. The executives of NuVerse Advisors include Stephen Saali and Dov Schlein. The prior loan Goodman Capital provided, for $23 million, was paid off and was not reassigned.

The $50 million is all new debt, and is described as a purchase money mortgage. Typically, a purchase money mortgage is recorded in Acris with the former owner becoming the lender, and the buyer becoming the borrower. In this case, the buyer is the borrower, but the lender is a new entity in care of NuVerse Advisors, which is affiliated with S3 Global.  Stephen Saali, Dov Schlein and Michael Becker did not sign the mortgage documents, but are listed as managing principals of S3 Global Multi-Strategy Fund LLC, which is a subsidiary of NuVerse Advisors.  The founders of NuVerse Advisors also worked for Edmond J. Safra‘s Republic National Bank.

The property

The office building in NoMad has 146,161 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 98 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,875 square feet. The zoning is C5-2 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $34 million. The most recent loan totaled $23 million and was provided by Goodman Capital on February 14, 2024.

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 one DOB violation, $3,650 in ECB penalties, and $5,850 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

Vicki Saali, of Sunlight Development submitted a major alteration application for an alteration of commercial (COM) building at 95 Madison Avenue in Nomad, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on May 30, 2024 under job number M01053870. It calls for a rehab of the 16-story building. The project is described in the filing as: converting existing 16 story high commercial use building to commercial-residential use building. interior renovation work on cellar, 1st floor to 16th floor. new c.o. will be obtained.

The neighborhood

In NoMad, The majority, or 66 percent of the 12.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, NoMad has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $165.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, NoMad has 2.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 18 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 16 commercial properties representing 1,152,802 square feet of the 1,764,078 square feet. The largest owner is Phipps Houses, followed by Pan Am Equities and then Michael Sklar.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 169,210 square feet. It is a 123-unit, 169,210 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Rockefeller Group and filed by John Pierce with plans filed January 30, 2018 and permitted June 6, 2018.

The majority, or 58 percent of the 1.8 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sunlight Development owned at least five commercial properties with 23 residential units in New York City with 48,347 square feet and a city-determined market value of $18.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $128.4 million in debt, borrowed from S3 Capital. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 72 percent of the 48,347 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with retail properties next occupying 28 percent of the space. They are all located in Queens.

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