Tower on NYCHA Land Adds a $50M Loan, Stacking Debt to $270M

A $50,000,000 mortgage from Bank Hapoalim was recorded Oct. 1 against 1440 Amsterdam Avenue, the 28-story, 490-unit Harlem tower built on land that came from the New York City Housing Authority, per ACRIS. It sits on top of $220,000,000 of recorded paper from 2025. Together that is $270,000,000, or about $551,000 per apartment.

Why it matters

The land was a NYCHA parking lot beside Manhattanville Houses, sold in 2022 in a deal reported to fund repairs to the six existing buildings through the PACT program. The tower now carries the heaviest debt per unit we have seen on a Harlem rental, and only about 30% of it, 147 apartments at 130% of area median income per New York YIMBY, is income-restricted. We checked whether the $50M was a refinance of the 2025 loan. The recorded mortgage is a standalone $50,000,000 filing with the same lender, so it reads as new money. We have not seen a satisfaction or a consolidation agreement, and neither the owner nor the bank has commented. This is a read of public records.

The numbers

The $50M mortgage was dated Sept. 28 and lists 1440 Owner LLC as borrower, block 1984 lot 28. The $220M agreement from Sept. 2025 rolled together two Valley National Bank mortgages ($122.8M and $55.2M), a $32M agreement and a $10M Bank Hapoalim mortgage. City PLUTO data lists 468,706 sf and 490 residential units, built 2023, so $270M is about $576 per sf and $551,000 per unit. The NYCHA deed shows $6,000,000; press reports put the land and air rights deal at $28 million, and we could not reconcile the two from the deed alone. Reporting names Grid Group and Artimus as the developers, with Artimus buying 50% from Lefkas Realty.

What’s next

Watch for a consolidation agreement tying the $50M to the $220M, which would show whether the lender sees one $270M loan. A satisfaction of any earlier mortgage would show how much of the stack is actually still outstanding. More deals are on the New York desk.