Development buzz is growing on the Greenpoint waterfront.
The Jay Group has secured a $320 million construction loan for a 590-unit rental project at 97 West Street in Brooklyn. G4 Capital Partners provided the financing. Henry Bodek of Galaxy Capital brokered the transaction.
It’s the third deal between The Jay Group and G4, according to the lender’s co-managing partner Jason Behfarin. “It demonstrates our commitment to our experienced and capable sponsors,” he said.
The neighborhood, at the northern tip of Brooklyn, has seen a spate of high-density residential development. The area was rezoned in 2005, allowing for residential construction in an area once dedicated to industrial activity.
The rental project at No. 97 is one of several planned developments along West Street. Down the street, TF Cornerstone is planning a 1,000-unit project at No. 45. And about 10 blocks north at Greenpoint Landing, Domain Companies, LMXD and Park Tower have proposed 1,000 units, 20,000 square feet of retail and a public park. About 300 units are set to be affordable.
The Jay Group has been active on the Greenpoint waterfront, with help from G4 Capital. The developer bought 101 Fleet Place in 2021 for $42.8 million, with a $130 million construction loan from G4, the Commercial Observer reported. A 21-story residential tower is complete at the site.
G4 also provided a $55 million loan to The Jay Group last year to buy six lots in the same area, 102-110 Fleet Place, 165 Willoughby and 275 Flatbush Extension, for $75 million, according to the Observer.
Those lots were purchased from entities connected to Jack Guttman of Pearl Realty, who is currently connected to the most recent site, according to public records.
It’s unclear if a sale has closed on the property; neither Guttman nor the Jay Group immediately responded to a request for comment. The ownership entity purchased the site for $7 million in 2001, when Jack’s father Joshua Guttman was running the business.
The Guttmans were also behind the sale of No. 45 to TF Cornerstone for $175 million.
Joshua Guttman’s name gained notoriety in the 2000s after a multiple-day fire at the Greenpoint Warehouse Terminal, which he owned. Guttman weathered media suspicion that he was connected to the blaze, as well as other fires at his properties. But another man, a homeless Polish immigrant named Leszek Kuczera, was charged with accidentally starting the fire when harvesting copper wire.
It’s not yet clear if the Jay Group is targeting a tax abatement for the development. The city’s current program, 485x, makes building large-scale projects like a 590-unit development more difficult than previous tax abatement programs. In Greenpoint, developers need to pay their construction workers nearly $75 per hour for projects exceeding 150 units to be able to nab the abatement. That increases costs by about 29 percent over previous tax programs, according to calculations from the Real Estate Board of New York.
G4 has elsewhere provided Rabsky Group with $320 million in construction financing for a Tribeca condo project and $286 million for a Gowanus multifamily development.
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