Dollars are flowing like electrons into Alloy Development’s 505 State Street, the first all-electric tower in New York City.
Alloy closed Tuesday on a $290 million loan from New York Life Real Estate Investors for the 44-story Brooklyn rental building completed in July. The permanent financing replaces a $210 million construction loan from Goldman Sachs and Related Companies.
The deal marks the exit of preferred equity partner Ares Management and establishes Alloy as the sole equity stakeholder. Alloy CEO Jared Della Valle called it a “significant milestone.”
Christopher Peck, Peter Rotchford and Nicco Lupo of JLL arranged the financing.
The 441-unit building is 85 percent leased, according to Alloy. More than 100,000 applications were received for its 45 housing-lottery units, which are affordable to households earning 40 percent to 100 percent of the area median income.
Rents for the income-restricted units range from $763 to $2,155. The listed market-rate rentals include a studio for $3,970, one-bedrooms from $4,200 to $5,030 and two-bedroom units from $7,295 to $7,755.
The tower is the first finished building on the triangular block Alloy is developing between State Street, Flatbush Avenue and Third Avenue, across from an Apple Store and Whole Foods Market. The project’s five new and old buildings include the city’s first two public schools built to passive-house standards as well as retail and office space on Flatbush Avenue and Schermerhorn Street.
There is parking for 200 bicycles and no cars — which helped the project pencil out and furthered its marketing as eco-friendly. All units have induction cooktops and heat-pump dryers, and the development’s power comes from two community solar providers.
Politicians in 2018 knocked down the proposed height of a planned second tower by about 30 percent in granting the rezoning Alloy needed, a gesture to opposition from Boerum Hill homeowners and their Assembly member, Jo Anne Simon.
“I strongly oppose the proposal given that the negative impacts on the community vastly outweigh the benefits,” Simon testified at the time, predicting it would cause traffic congestion despite having no parking garage and being across the street from Atlantic Terminal, one of the city’s largest transit hubs.
Although Alloy was building two schools, Simon also claimed the development would cause classroom overcrowding. She complained that it would cast shadows as well.
Mayor Eric Adams, who at the time was Brooklyn borough president, recommended approval of a shorter building than Alloy proposed, a position that was adopted by the ultimate decision-maker, then-City Council member Steve Levin.
Still, the rezoning was considered an overall win for Alloy, which was supported by an incipient pro-housing movement that has since grown. The 1,000-unit project was then known as 80 Flatbush Avenue.
Because two schools — Khalil Gibran International Academy and P.S. 456 — were included, Alloy was allowed to set aside only 10 percent of the first tower’s apartments as affordable. Those units plus the schools account for 34 percent of the square footage of the project’s initial phase.
The second phase, on which construction will begin next year, will be 27 percent affordable, bringing the block’s income-restricted unit count to 200.
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