Chetrit Lands $235M Construction Loan for UES Condo Tower

G4 Capital Partners provided the financing — which includes a mezzanine component — while Galaxy Capital’s Henry Bodek negotiated the debt on behalf of the borrower. 

“We’re being very selective in determining which projects we’re financing in this environment,” Robyn Sorid, co-managing partner at G4, told CO. “We’re lending to best-in-class sponsors in mature markets where there’s clear demand for specific product types.” 

The development site at 252-254, 257, 259 and 260 East 72nd Street will have two components when completed: a 21-story, 54-unit luxury condo tower on the corner of Second Avenue and East 72nd Street, and an apartment building next door which will house four affordable units. 

The condo tower will span 150,000 square feet and also include 5,700 square feet of retail space. 

The project has been years in the making, as Chetrit Group patiently accumulated the parcels starting in 2015, the firm’s development happily coinciding with the Second Avenue subway extension. 

 In March 2022, Patch reported that much of the Second Avenue block would soon be demolished to make way for the new development, with the Church of St. John the Martyr at 252 East 72nd already having been razed back in April 2020. 

The five-story, 28-unit multifamily building on the block was also purchased by Chetrit Group in 2018 for $47.2 million from previous owner SL Green Realty, and its retail units shuttered in advance of the new development, Patch reported. 

G4’s construction loan follows the lender’s bridge-to-construction loan for the site, executed in late 2021, as reported by CO. At the time, the $116.5 million loan was collateralized by the Upper East Side development site and also Chetrit’s luxury condominium building at 49 Chambers Street in Tribeca. Galaxy’s Bodek arranged the financing in that instance, too. 

“This submarket has ample room to absorb this unique, luxury offering,” Sorid said of the condo tower, adding that in the current choppy market, G4 is focused on flight-to-quality assets and those that fall “right down the middle of the fairway.” 

Closing a deal of this size today is no mean feat, but Galaxy’s Bodek credited the strength of G4. “Along with an exceptional finance partner like G4 comes extraordinary and friendly asset management, and expertise that’s specifically tailored to each customer’s needs,”  he said.

Chetrit Group officials could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.