LIIF has served as agent to lead a CDFI co-lending arrangement, providing a $20 million secured acquisition loan to Breaking Ground, Slate Property Group and Settlement Housing Fund.
This early-stage financing will fund part of the nearly $300 million acquisition and predevelopment of the Stewart Hotel, a 28-story, 475,000-square-foot vacant hotel next to Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan. The Stewart Hotel’s current rooms will be converted to 579 units of affordable and supportive housing. Half of the units will be at 60% area median income (AMI); the other half will be supportive units at 50% AMI, set aside for formerly unhoused single adults with serious mental illness and/or substance-use disorders. On-site case management and social services will be provided by Breaking Ground and be available at no cost to all tenants living in the building.
LIIF’s $20 million co-lending arrangement was with The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Other lenders in the nearly $300 million total transaction included Wells Fargo, JPMorganChase, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and the New York State Housing Finance Agency (HFA). Through HPD and HFA, this project will have enormous City and State support, as both see this as an excellent opportunity to convert commercial property into affordable housing.
The Stewart Hotel’s current rooms will be converted to 579 units of affordable and supportive housing.