City, Developers Reach Financing Deal for BK MF Tower

NEW YORK CITY-City officials and the developers of a mixed-income apartment tower in Downtown Brooklyn's Cultural District have closed on a $278-million plan to finance the project's construction. The deal means that construction on the 586-unit tower, first announced by the Bloomberg administration in November 2012, can get under way in the near future.

“The Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District has become one of our city's most important centers for the arts, drawing some of the best creative talent in the borough, the country and the globe,” RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said earlier this week. “This project, and those to come, will transform these vacant and underused lots into mixed-income affordable housing and cultural space that will become a real bricks and mortar community and home for these artists, performers, and for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.”

To help subsidize construction and ensure the project's affordability, HPD provided the land at a nominal cost to developers Gotham Organization and DT Salazar Inc. The agency is also allocating 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that will generate approximately $19.3 million in equity towards the project. 

In all, HDC is providing $177.5 million of financing. Of this, $33 million is tax-exempt bonds; $2.5 million is a subordinate loan from the New York City Housing Development Corp.; and $142 million is a loan from a consortium of private lenders comprised of Wells Fargo, TD Bank and Capital One.

When Gotham and DT Salazar complete their 515,000-square-foot apartment tower at 250 Ashland Pl., they'll include 20,000 square feet of cultural and related office space and 20,000 square feet of retail space. Two-hundred and eighty-two of the new multifamily units will be made permanently affordable to low-income and middle-income New Yorkers. The 52-story tower's design is by architects FXFOWLE.