Financing Arranged for Brooklyn Office Building

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

New York—Meadow Partners has received $50.2 million in financing to acquire and renovate 57 Willoughby St., a six-story office building located in the center of downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., which was owned by Helen Keller Services For the Blind.

57 Willoughby St. in Brooklyn

Square Mile Capital Management LLC secured the loan, which was brokered by Aaron Appel, Jonathan Schwartz, Michael Diaz and Matt Collins of JLL’s New York City office.

“This transaction provides us with the opportunity to further expand our foothold in Brooklyn and establish a lending relationship with Meadow Partners,” Sean Reimer, Square Mile’s vice president, said in a prepared release. “The downtown Brooklyn submarket is experiencing dynamic economic growth, favorable demographic trends and low vacancy rates.”

Approximately $10 million of the money will be used to renovate and reposition the 124,000-square-foot property, which includes ground floor retail space.

The building is fully leased to nonprofit Housing Works and others. Helen Keller For The Blind currently occupies 20,900 square feet of space on two floors and plans to relocate in 2017.

Located at the intersection of Willoughby and Lawrence streets, the building benefits from convenient transportation access, with the Jay Street-Metro Tech subway station around the corner accessing the A, C, F, N and R lines that reach various parts of Manhattan. The property is also just one block from Fulton Mall.

According to Reimer, the area continues to be a favorable lower-cost alternative to Manhattan, and 57 Willoughby St., will be well positioned to fulfill the demand for office and retail in downtown Brooklyn.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix