Fortress Provides $80M Refi for 141 East Houston Street
Once the Sunshine Cinema, the property has been converted to a Class A office asset with retail at its base
By Cathy Cunningham March 25, 2022 3:13 pm
reprints
East End Capital, Grandview Partners and KPG Funds have landed a $79.6 million refinance for 141 East Houston Street in the Lower East Side, Commercial Observer can first report.
Fortress provided the three-year, floating-rate bridge loan, while Walker & Dunlop’s Jonathan Schwartz, Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Adam Schwartz and Michael Diaz negotiated the financing.
The deal closed on March 23.
Once the historic Sunshine Cinema, the 68,000-square-foot property has since been converted into a Class A office building, designed by Roger Ferris Architecture. It also includes retail space at its base, and two cellar levels. New York YIMBY reported in October that the building’s exterior work was nearing completion.
It’s currently in the lease-up process now, with more than 50 percent of the building accounted for so far, according to sources familiar with the asset.
East End Capital and KPG Funds purchased the theater back in 2017, paying $31.5 million. They developers secured a $67 million construction loan from Pacific Western Bank (then Capital Source) and Canyon Partners in 2019, arranged by the same W&D team when they were still with JLL.
“The Lower East Side has more creatives living in it than just about any neighborhood in New York, yet it currently has no Class A office space,” Jonathon Yormak, co-founder of East End, said at the project’s groundbreaking in October 2019. “We are thrilled to be a part of the neighborhood’s changing landscape and provide something that is really needed.”
JLL’s Howard Hersch is handling the property’s office leasing, while RIPCO’s Richard Skulnik is overseeing the leasing of the building’s retail component.
Fortress officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Officials at W&D declined to comment.
Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com
