Long Island Developer Scores $220M Refi on New Chelsea Multifamily Building [Updated]
By Matt Grossman September 20, 2018 3:56 pm
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Lalezarian Properties, a Long Island-based commercial developer, has nabbed $220 million in financing from the New York State Housing Finance Agency to refinance a residential project in Chelsea, according to documents filed in city property records today.
The deal, which closed on September 7, refinances construction debt from 2013 lent by a partnership of the HFA, Wells Fargo (WFC) and New York City, records show. The HFA’s role is to promote affordable housing by financing projects that include apartments set aside at below-market rents. A spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Lalezarian’s buildings, at 507 and 509 West 28th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, directly abuts the High Line, a park built atop an unused elevated railway spur. Since it opened in 2009, the park has been the focal point of a residential renaissance on the far West Side along its length, a trend that includes Lalezarian’s building, which went up in 2017.
The property is part of a three-building multifamily campus totaling 375 apartments. Its largest building is the tower at 507 West 28th Street, which includes 291,000 square feet of living space as well as a 16,000-square-foot ground-floor retail store, offers a pool and a roof deck. A squat one-story commercial building built in 1930 was demolished to make way for the new 35-story tower’s construction.
All three buildings were designed by Avinash K. Malhotra Architects, a firm led by its eponymous principal from an office in Chelsea.A Lalezarian employee declined to comment on the transaction, saying only the company’s owners were “very private.” A New York Times wedding announcement from 2007 stated that the company was controlled by Flora and Frank Lalezarian of Great Neck, N.Y.
Update: This article was amended to include additional debt that was also part of the transaction.
