Kibel Funds Renovations of Historic Manhattan Apartment Building
The firm has owned the nearly century-old property since 1994.
Kibel Cos. has obtained $30 million in permanent financing for continued investment for Sloane Chelsea, a 266-unit high-rise apartment building located at 360 W 34th St. in Midtown Manhattan.
Greystone Managing Director Robert Meehan originated the financing, which was provided by Freddie Mac. The loan will mature in 2025.
Sloane Chelsea was built in 1930. Kibel has owned the property for over 30 years, acquiring it in 1994 for about $4 million from the YMCA of Greater New York. Previously, the property had been a single-room occupancy run by that organization and known as the William Sloane House, the largest YMCA in the nation. After its sale, the Sloane was converted to apartments.
Sloane Chelsea offers a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, in addition to a penthouse. Common-area amenities include a fitness center, laundry facilities, private storage and a 24-hour doorman.
Manhattan multifamily fundamentals strong
A famously tight multifamily market, Manhattan continues to see only a trickle of development, including the redevelopment of office properties.
The borough had 12,126 units under construction as of March, as well as an additional 39,000 units in the planning and permitting stages, Yardi Matrix notes. Average advertised asking rents were up 0.6 percent on a trailing three-month basis through March, to $5,116, well above the 0.1 percent national increase for the same period.
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The fundamentals are keeping investors interested. They committed $1.9 billion to acquire Manhattan multifamily assets in 2024, representing a growth volume of 46.2 percent year-over-year.
In August, Naftali Group acquired the 208-unit 800 Fifth Ave. from Spitzer Enterprises and Winter Properties for $810 million earlier this year. Naftali plans to demolish the building and replace it with a condominium property.
Developers are also converting obsolete office buildings into apartments in the borough. TF Cornerstone will convert Tower 57, a 397,354-square-foot office tower in Manhattan into a 350-unit multifamily property, which will be complete in 2028. The company will use New York’s 467-m program, which provides a partial tax exemption for the conversion.
