Upper Manhattan Co-op Complex Pulls in $55M Refi
By Matt Grossman February 6, 2019 12:53 pm
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A major cooperative apartment complex in Upper Manhattan has landed a $55.2 million refinancing from National Cooperative Bank, according to records filed with the New York City Department of Finance today.
The hulking, five-building co-op property, Castle Village, was built in the late 1930s by developer Charles Paterno, but today it’s collectively owned by its residents. Organized into a joint entity called Castle Village Owners Corp, those denizens are the borrowers in the new mortgage agreement, which refinances and expands a previous $34.4 million loan—also from National Cooperative—that came in 2012.
The package is split into a $50.2 million slice and a smaller $5 million piece. Mary Alex Blanton, a spokeswoman for the bank, said the larger chunk is a 10-year loan with a fixed 4.1 percent interest rate, and that the $5 million sum represents a line of credit Castle Village can draw on as needed.
Blanton said residents will use about $11 million of the proceeds to fund garage repairs.
The buildings line a stretch of Cabrini Boulevard between West 181st and West 186th Streets, just south of Fort Tryon Park. The seven-acre site commands a striking view of the Hudson River from a ridge that crests sharply above Broadway, four blocks east. On each story of each building, eight out of nine apartments have river views, according to a guide by the American Institute of Architects. The apartment buildings were also among the first anywhere to use reinforced concrete.
In 2005, a retaining wall that supported the building partially collapsed, blocking traffic on the Henry Hudson Parkway for several days. No one was injured, and the co-op paid $24 million to rebuild the wall over the following two years.
A management company hired by the buildings residents, FirstService Residential, will administer the new loan for the borrowers, the city records show.
Prices for digs in the buildings, which comprise 553 units total, vary considerably. A 1,850-square-foot apartment in 180 Cabrini Boulevard—billed as a live-in professional office—is on the market for $1.5 million, according to the complex’s website. At 140 Cabrini Boulevard, an 800-square foot one-bedroom unit is going for $649,000.
National Cooperative, an Arlington, Va.-based institution, focuses its real estate lending on housing cooperatives and community associations like groups of condo owners and homeowners associations. For co-op buildings, it offers 10-, 15- and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages up to 55 percent loan-to-value, with interest-only options available, Blanton said.
Representatives for Castle Village didn’t immediately respond to inquiries.
