Acier Holdings Secures $90M Construction Financing for Newark Tower
Once completed, The Halo will be the tallest building in the city.
Halo Tower. Image courtesy of Parkview Financial
Parkview Financial provided a $90 million construction loan to Acier Holdings to develop Phase I of The Halo, a high-rise apartment project at 289-301 Washington St., in Newark, N.J. The first building, a 43-story, 297-unit property which will be the tallest building in the city, will have 38 residential stories over a five-level parking structure.
Construction will begin immediately with completion expected in January 2024. Acier Holdings, a privately-owned real estate investment firm, acquired the site in 2017. The firm has received approvals to build a three-phased project that will have a total of 949 units in three towers. The project has been approved by the City of Newark with a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) tax abatement program that reduces property taxes to 10 percent of the revenue for 30 years.
Paul Rahimian, president & CEO of Parkview Financial, said in a prepared statement Newark continues to see billions of dollars in investment for new and redevelopment projects. Starting in the early 2000s, Newark led the state in rebuilding and rehabbing of its housing stock and issuance of building permits. Incentives encouraging development along with an improving local economy and increased demand for low-cost housing close to Manhattan has made Newark one of the fastest growing cities in the Northeast. Rahminian said Parkview Financial, which also has offices in Denver and Atlanta and is opening a New York City location this year, said the firm has identified Newark as an expanding rental market.
Property Details
Phase I includes 30 affordable units. The building will have unit mix of 156 studios, 84 one-bedroom apartments and 57 two-bedroom apartments. Common area amenities will include a pool, sauna, fitness center, multiple lounge rooms, game room, conference rooms with private office suites, shared workspaces and a rooftop deck with views of Newark, the Manhattan skyline and beyond. The building will have the latest in technologies targeting 93 percent energy efficiency.
The Halo is 1 mile east of Rutgers University and Medical Center and the Rutgers Newark Campus is located 1 mile north of the property. Newark Penn Station is less than a mile from the property with service including New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and PATH trains.
Hudson Meridian HM is the general contractor for the development and INOA Architecture is the architect of record.
Earlier Deals
This is Parkview Financial’s second construction loan with Acier Holdings. The first loan was for $56 million in 2020 for Phase I of Jersey Walk, a 274-unit Class A apartment community at 901 E. Jersey St. in Elizabeth, N.J.
In June, the firm provided a $90 million construction loan to 1 Park Row Development LLC for a Class A mixed-use project at 1 Park Row in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The 23-story building will include 103,000 square feet, of which 64,000 square feet will be residential space totaling 58 condominiums.
Early last year, the firm provided Hongkun USA Real Estate Development with a $61 million predevelopment and entitlement loan for a luxury project at Port Imperial along the Hudson River waterfront in Weehawken, N.J. The project has been approved to include a 496,000-square-foot, eight-story condominium building with 282 residential units and 4,601 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
