CL Credit Provides $24M Refi for Bronx Affordable Housing Development

The ground may have shaken for 20 seconds on Friday in New York City, but one firm is making big moves of a different kind this week. 

CL Credit, a debt platform that was recently launched by Castle Lanterra, just made its lending debut in the form of a $24 million loan in the Bronx. 

The new platform’s loan refinances 53 East 177th Street, an 81-unit affordable housing property owned by 53 E. 177 LLC, an entity tied to Brooklyn-based Skyward Developers. 

The eight-story, mixed-use building is in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx. 

Permits were filed for its construction in April 2022, New York YIMBY reported. The 50,291-square-foot building was completed in 2023, received its certificate of occupancy in January and features retail space on the ground floor. Of its 81 residential units, 80 are designated affordable.

Proceeds from CL Credit’s loan refinance the development’s existing debt and also go toward paying down outstanding construction costs and the building’s lease-up. 

“Working closely with the sponsor, we were able to put a customized refinance package in place that provided much-needed capital for the affordable housing project,” Elie Rieder, CEO and founder of CL Credit, said in prepared remarks. “This transaction is the first of many we have in the pipeline, with many owners, developers and investors experiencing a liquidity crisis due to challenging market conditions in the lending arena.”

New York-based Castle Lanterra launched CL Credit last November with a goal of deploying $500 million in equity in the following year. The credit and special situations lending platform, headed up by Rieder and industry veteran Jim Glasgow as its chief investment officer, was launched in response to the, ahem, earth-shaking volatility in capital markets and severe market headwinds that battered the commercial real estate industry amid rising interest rates. 

Today, CL is targeting both the origination and acquisition of senior bridge and mezzanine loans, as well as preferred equity investments, and officially has its first origination now under its belt. 

Skyward Developers couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@comercialobserver.com