Seidenfeld of Eastern Union brokers $20 million loan for ground up construction of 99 Morningside Avenue

Eastern Union Funding arranged a $20 million loan for ground up construction on 99 Morningside Ave. on behalf of Azimuth Development Group LLC. Eastern Union's Jeff Seidenfeld brokered the loan, which covers 100% of construction costs and 90% of the client's out of pocket costs—a loan with a storyline in its own right for what will be a game-changing piece of real estate in West Harlem. Provided by Madison Realty Capital, the loan features two years interest-only with an interest rate of 11.5%. "Normally, paying double digit rates is very high, and most of our construction loans are sub-5%," Seidenfeld said. "In this case, the final product was cheap equity. This leverage would have been impossible had we gone with a conventional bank, the client would have had to put up substantially more equity and possibly taken out a partnership." The construction site is the current location of St. Luke Baptist Church. Upon completion, the building will stand eleven stories and house 22 condos with the cellar, ground floor, and a portion of the second occupied by the same church. Demolition of the existing structure at 99 Morningside is scheduled imminently, and construction will commence immediately after. "We want to bring south of 96th Street quality north of 96th St.," said Azimuth founder Guido Subotovsky. "West Harlem has seen a significant resurgence in the last several years and we see this development as the tipping point of that. We think our project will bring to the neighborhood the kind of quality you'd see in a downtown structure and sets a new bar moving forward." Subotovsky found his footing in the market by aggressively turning around affordable housing projects, with an emphasized focus on the Bronx. Now, his firm has diversified and is focusing on emerging markets. To finalize plans for the glass-façades of the planned structure, Azimuth also purchased an adjacent property and worked with its architect to ultimately win this deal from a pool of roughly 30 bidders. Azimuth expects to complete construction in late 2016. About Eastern Union Funding: Founded in 2001, Eastern Union Funding is a leading national commercial mortgage brokerage firm, employing over 100 real estate professionals who, using their extensive knowledge of the market, share lender and market data and utilize state-of-the-art proprietary technology to capitalize on deep relationships with more than 85 local and national lenders. Eastern Union's real estate professionals bring clients the very best rates and terms the market has to offer, acting as trusted advisors who operate on the simple premise that client needs come first. Eastern Union's arsenal of lending sources enables the company to arrange financing for complex, multi-state, multi-site portfolios, as well as loans for smaller, single-property transactions. The company consistently places an average of a quarter of a billion in new loans every month. Eastern Union, which operates nationwide, is headquartered in New York, with offices in New Jersey and Maryland. For more information, please visit: http://www.easternuc.com/. # # #