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Developer Secures $15 Million Loan For Somerville Rental Project

Article Published HERE

Meridian Capital Group has brokered $15 million in financing for the development of a new 60-unit luxury rental property in downtown Somerville.

Working on behalf of the developer, Robert Weiss of Weiss Properties, Meridian sourced the construction loan through a regional balance sheet lender. The funds will support the midrise property known as The Davenport, located at 21 Davenport St., which includes four stories of apartments atop a 68-story parking garage.

Meridian Managing Director Shaya Ackerman and Senior Vice President Shaya Sonnenschein negotiated the financing for the transaction, according to a news release. The 30-month construction loan features a prime-based floating rate.

The same Meridian team, which is based in the firm’s New York City headquarters, also recently arranged $46 million in construction and permanent financing for The Avery, a 450-unit apartment community in Willingboro developed by Weiss Properties.

“Shaya Ackerman and Shaya Sonnenschein are both professional and have a tremendous grasp of the financial market,” said Weiss, president of the New Brunswick-based firm. “I am glad we were able to continue our relationship with the financing of The Davenport.”

In Somerville, Meridian touted the borough’s direct access to major highways, nearby rail service and a busy collection of downtown shops and restaurants. Plans for The Davenport call for a recreational area, fitness center, storage lockers and a common-area lounge.

Development

Meridian inks $21.3 million loan for 450-unit rental property in Burlington Co.

The developer of a 450-unit luxury apartment property in Willingboro has landed more than $21 million in financing, in a transaction arranged by Meridian Capital Group.

Brokers with the firm represented the borrower, Weiss Properties, in sourcing the $21.3 million loan for the complex known as The Avery. The developer will use the 12-year agency loan, which features seven years of interest-only payments, to refinance the property at 10 Lincoln Square.

Development

Construction on Major Florence Development to Begin Early Next Year

The mixed-use development will bring 240 apartments, a 104-room Marriot Town Place Suites hotel and a restaurant to the intersection of Route 130 and Cedar Lane.

FLORENCE — The developer behind a mixed-use project that will bring 240 apartments, a 104-room Marriott Town Place Suites hotel and a restaurant to the intersection of Route 130 and Cedar Lane announced Tuesday that construction is expected to begin early next year.

Development

Mixed Use Development At Route 130 and Cedar Lane Approved

A plan to bring 240 apartments, retail space and a 104-room hotel to the intersection of Route 130 and Cedar Lane was approved Tuesday by the Township Planning Board.

FLORENCE — An open field along Route 130 will soon be transformed into a major mixed-use development.

A plan to bring 240 apartments, retail space and a 104-room hotel to the intersection of Route 130 and Cedar Lane was approved Tuesday by the Township Planning Board.

However, while the development received preliminary and final major site plan approval from the planning board, the project hinges on approval from the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the acquisition of land it owns at the corner of the lot that borders Route 130 North and Cedar Lane — which would eliminate the existing jughandle — and for the installation of a roundabout on Cedar Lane at Hunts Circus Drive as a replacement for the jughandle.

The project is being developed by the New Brunswick-based real estate development company Weiss Properties, which also is in the process of negotiating a redevelopment agreement for the site with the township.

If the developer does not receive approval for either the land transfer or the roundabout, it will have to come back before the planning board for any changes made to the project.

According to Yoni Nevenasky, Weiss Properties vice president, the DOT is currently reviewing the applications and it is expected that the approvals will be made and finalized in five to six months. Nevenasky said that it was NJDOT that suggested using a roundabout as a replacement for the jughandle.

According to the project’s traffic engineer, Matt Seckler, of Stonefield Engineering, instead of motorists traveling northbound on Route 130 and using the existing jughandle to make left hand turns onto Cedar Lane, motorists will turn right at the intersection and use the roundabout to turn around and head west on Cedar Lane.

The development will consist of 10, 24-unit residential buildings. Each building will be three stories with eight units on each floor. There will be 92 one-bedroom units, 140 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units — 15 percent of which will be affordable housing units.

Its expected that the development will house 22 to 26 school-age children, according to project Engineer Robert Stoudt, of Stoudt and Caldwell LLC.

The residential development will include a clubhouse, retention pond and recycling center. The plan proposes a 104-room Marriott Hotel and either a restaurant or retail store located next to it.

Entrance and exit lanes into the development will be along Route 130 North and along Cedar Lane at the roundabout.

A low median will also be installed down the middle of the two-lane road to prevent motorists from turning left into the Wawa entrance along Cedar Lane.

Crosswalks will be installed at the roundabout that will allow for pedestrian crossing across exits into the residential development, Hunts Circus Drive, and both eastbound and westbound lanes on Cedar Lane.

However, concerns were raised over pedestrians from the development jaywalking to get to the Wawa instead of using the crosswalks at the roundabout.

“We deal with human nature, and it’s concerning how this is going to work,” said planning board Chair Mildred Hamiton-Wood over the location of crosswalks.

Weiss Properties agreed to install a four-foot tall decorative fence along Cedar Lane, and request to NJDOT that a mid-block crosswalk be installed as well near the Wawa’s driveway.

Once the necessary approvals are made, construction will begin with the installation of the roundabout, followed by the first phase of the project’s development — the construction of five of the apartment buildings. The second phase will begin with the construction of the hotel and retail site, and the remainder of the apartment buildings.

Weiss Properties also developed The Avery in Willingboro, and said that its proposed development in the township will be similar. It also has residential developments in Somerville and commercial developments in North Brunswick, New Brunswick, Robbinsville and Miami Beach.

Article Published HERE

Development

New York Private Club In Brookville, NY Sells For $15 Million

New Jersey-based Titan Golf has purchased Tam O’Shanter Country Club in Brookville, N.Y., for a reported $15 million.

It’s the latest strategic acquisition by Titan, which targets financially challenged private clubs with an eye toward upgrading facilities and expanding membership. Titan was one of several potential buyers contacted by club members last year as part of an effort to make sure the Long Island club remained open.

As part of the deal Titan brought in Troon Golf to manage the club under its Troon Privé private club division.

Titan, which two years ago purchased the Woodmere (N.Y.) Club, is reducing annual dues at Tam O’Shanter by 25 percent in an effort to boost membership from the current 200.

Titan Golf is owned by Efrem Gerszberg and Robert Weiss.

In addition to golf course, the club six Har-Tru tennis courts, a pool, a fitness center with a sauna and steam room, and casual and fine dining facilities. Sales & Finance

Development

Meridian Inks $27.5 Million Loan For 117 Unit Rental Project In Somerville

The developer of a newly built, 117-unit apartment building in Somerville has refinanced for $27.5 million, under a newly announced transaction by Meridian Capital Group.

The capital markets firm said it represented Weiss Properties, which built The Cobalt at 70 Veterans Memorial Drive East, in sourcing the loan. Completed in 2017, the four-story luxury property includes a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom layouts within the borough’s burgeoning downtown and is a short walk from NJ Transit rail service.

Meridian Senior Managing Director Shaya Ackerman and Senior Vice President Shaya Sonnenschein, who are both based in the firm’s New York City headquarters, negotiated the loan.

“This was a great deal with a great client,” Ackerman said. “Weiss Properties did a fantastic job designing and constructing these luxury apartments, and the Class A appeal was very attractive to lenders.”

Designed by Minno & Wasko Architects and Builders, The Cobalt offers units with high-end interiors and amenities such as a fitness center, a residents’ lounge with a billiards table and a parking garage.

Development

Weiss: New Upscale Rental Project Is Latest Step Forward For Somerville

Robert Weiss had owned the site for some 20 years. But it was only recently that he could tap into the potential of a property that is steps from both a commuter train station and downtown Somerville.

The turning point came when local leaders became interested in attracting new residents to their central business district, Weiss said. Officials then moved about four years ago to rezone the parcel on Veterans Memorial Drive from commercial to residential, allowing the developer to justify the cost of remediating and redeveloping the property.

“This is something that they really wanted to see happen and they really helped with the process,” said Weiss, president of Weiss Properties. “And whenever you have a town or a borough helping a developer with the process, you know that this is something that everybody wants. So it was really their vision of bringing housing and apartments to the center of town, and I think it’s paid off tremendously.”

That was all too clear last summer when Weiss Properties opened The Cobalt, its new 117-unit high-end apartment building at the site. The four-story property has revitalized a long-vacant, formerly contaminated site just a block from Main Street — which housed a junk yard and metal fabrication facility — offering a new living option for a town that is primed to tap into the market for walkable, transit-centric destinations.

The Cobalt, which is about 65 percent leased, has seemingly checked those boxes while also embracing the surrounding environment. Project architect David Minno said it was “designed to be a little bit edgy-looking, and it’s in what I would call an edgier location of Somerville.”

That has resulted in an eye-catching, multicolored exterior with corrugated metal siding and contemporary-style windows, he said.

“We really wanted to say that this was a project not necessarily just for young people, but one that has a contemporary, vibrant edge to it on the edge of the town next to the tracks,” said Minno, principal and co-founder of Minno & Wasko. “And the interior design followed through with the color scheme.”

Located at 70 Veterans Memorial Drive East, the property borders NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line to the south and is about two blocks from the commuter rail station. Minno said that proximity to the tracks created the potential for noise, but the design time “turned lemons into lemonade” by building a 109-space parking deck between the building and the rail line.

The mass of the parking structure helps soften the sound from passing trains, he said, while also providing an additional amenity for renters at The Cobalt.

“It was a nice way to handle what could have been a tough edge,” Minno said.

Minno’s firm has also designed Weiss’ next project in Somerville, a 60-unit development on Davenport Street that was slated to break ground this month. It’s one of several projects in the pipeline for a borough that has also attracted builders such as Edgewood Properties, which built the town’s first luxury apartments in 2014 as part of a project on West Main Street, and Somerset Development.

Weiss, who credited former Mayor Brian Gallagher and longtime Planning Board Chairman Bernie Navatto, is especially bullish on Somerville. That’s due to the borough’s embrace of new mixed-use development, the activity from the county administration and courthouse buildings and a popular downtown that is bustling with upscale shops and restaurants.

“Every time you turn around, it’s like something new is being built or being redone or being added,” Weiss said. “So it’s a town that’s just moving forward and we feel that for more and more people, given the choice of fresh new, contemporary modern designs, it’s going to be very popular.”

County officials seem to agree. The Cobalt was one of six projects recently to receive a Land Development and Planning Award, a distinction offered by the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the county planning board.

“Each year, awards are presented for land development and planning that exemplify superior site design, address contemporary planning issues, or exert a positive influence on the character of the county,” said Gallagher, now a county freeholder. “I congratulate all of the honorees for demonstrating the positive impact that well-designed and -planned projects can have in communities.”

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