NEW YORK CITY-Returning to an area that saw frequent investment by the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds at the height of the market, CJUF has stepped in to help bring a Brooklyn condominium project to completion. The Los Angeles-based joint venture of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and an entity of Magic Johnson Enterprises is providing a $22.6-million loan to the developers of the Isabella, a 63-unit condo project at 545 Washington Ave. in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill section.

CJUF’s loan to OL Washington LLC, an affiliate of Garden City, NY-based Ornstein & Leyton Co., will be used to acquire existing construction and mezzanine loans and to complete construction on the project. It will also help launch an active sales and marketing campaign later this year; the Corcoran Group has been engaged to market units for sale upon completion of the property.

“CJUF has years of experience and a number of investments in Brooklyn,” Bobby Turner, managing partner of CJUF, says in a statement. “We know this area well, and we are thrilled to contribute to the continued growth and revitalization of this community.”

The borough to which CJUF is returning has taken its lumps from the real estate downturn. According to the New York City Department of Buildings, Brooklyn leads the way in stalled construction sites. Of the 649 stalled sites citywide as of August 8, Brooklyn had 292, although the Isabela was not listed among them.

In 2004, CJUF partnered with a local developer, Anderson & Associates, to build Park Place Condominium, an eight-story, 90,000 square foot mixed-use project at 145 Park Pl., the site of the former Brooklyn Tabernacle auditorium. The project consisted of 47 market rate residential condominiums, 4,500 square feet of ground level retail and 25 underground parking spaces.

A year later, CJUF undertook its largest-scale Brooklyn project to date, the $71-million purchase with the Dermot Co. of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at 1 Hanson Pl. in Fort Greene. The landmark 35-story tower, which dates from 1927, is now One Hanson Place, a condo development. It’s near Atlantic Terminal, Forest City Ratner Cos.’ MetroTech Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and what will eventually be FCRC’s Atlantic Yards development.

In 2007, CJUF provided $12.4 million of financing to help build 110 Green St., a 130-unit condo project in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. “We are believers in Brooklyn as a place that is economically growing, healthy, entertaining and the place to be,” Earvin “Magic” Johnson said at the time.

The Washington Avenue corridor in Clinton Hill was chock-a-block with new condo development when Johnson made that statement. OL Washington’s Isabella will provide a mix of studio, one‐bedroom, two‐bedroom and three-bedroom homes, with an average unit size of 1,060 square feet and an average price of $530,000. It too will be located near Atlantic Yards, as well as convenient to four subway lines.