Manhattan Community Lands $136M Green Loan
Freddie Mac extended the 10-year loan to Rachel Bridge owner Clipper Equity, in a deal arranged by Walker & Dunlop. The financing will facilitate property renovations to cut down on energy and water usage.
Freddie Mac has provided $136 million in green financing for the Rachel Bridge apartment community in Upper Manhattan. Walker & Dunlop structured the deal for the four-building, 960-unit affordable housing property that sits atop the Trans-Manhattan Expressway.
Clipper Equity owns the project, which was built in 1964. More than half the units in the quartet of 32-story buildings are affordable to low-income residents. Located at 1370 Saint Nicholas Ave. in the Washington Heights neighborhood, Rachel Bridge is more than 99 percent occupied, according to Yardi Matrix data.
The buildings and apartment units will undergo renovations to slash water and energy consumption. The financing deal takes advantage of the Freddie Mac Green Up Plus program, which offers the borrower a partial reimbursement of the costs of the environment-friendly upgrades. Favorable terms of the 10-year loan also include interest-only payments at a debt service coverage ratio of 1.25x.
Hirsch Simins and David Rosenberg of Walker & Dunlop’s New Jersey Capital Markets team worked with Brendan Coleman and Chris Forte of the firm’s Multifamily Finance group to assemble the financing.
“The combination of a large NYC affordable housing complex and best-in-class sponsorship enabled us to provide an incredible loan to the borrower, and we were able to close quickly,” commented Simins in a prepared statement.