Northwind Provides $231M Construction Loan to Convert 675 Third Avenue

David Werner Real Estate Investments and Nathan Berman’s MetroLoft have secured $231 million in construction financing to convert an office at 675 Third Avenue into a 450-unit residential multifamily in Midtown Manhattan, Commercial Observer can first report. 

Ran Eliasaf’s Northwind Group provided the construction debt, which will refinance existing acquisition debt on the asset and fund a build-out that has already begun. No broker was listed on the transaction.

Northwind had previously provided a $90 million acquisition loan to sponsorship, who purchased the property from the Durst Organization in April 2025 for $100 million. 

Eliasaf told Commercial Observer that his firm felt “very comfortable” with the building’s layout and the experienced sponsorship group, which is led by Berman, one of the preeminent experts of office-to-residential conversions in New York City.

“It’s a fairly simple conversion, with no structural work,” said Eliasaf. “It’s basically an interior fit-out, and it’s technically [an asset] that spans the full block of Third Avenue from 42 Street to 43 Street near Grand Central Terminal.

Eliasaf added that sponsorship had already started construction financed by equity and that his firm “came in with capital to take it to the next level.” 

A full 25 percent of the rental units in the property will be designated as affordable housing under the 467-m program, according to Northwind. 

The construction loan from Northwind comes only a few months after MetroLoft and David Werner oversaw an alarming structural collapse in early July at the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street and 219 East 42nd Street, which is being converted into a 1,600-unit apartment building, with 11 floors being added to the existing structure. 

CO reported that collapsing columns and falling bricks inside the property on July 7 led to evacuations in neighboring buildings and street closures. Workers managed to stabilize the shifting building by the following morning.

Eliasaf told CO he isn’t worried about a repeat of that incident with this same sponsorship group and that he took “no pause,” to extend development capital on this project. 

“Nathan Berman is the most experienced converter in the city,” he said. “Unfortunately, Pfizer happened, but it’s a construction mishap and it doesn’t reflect on our conversion in any way.”

Correction: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly listed the loan price at $275 million.

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.