Bravo lends $68M on 180-unit Bayonne waterfront rental

Bravo Property Trust provided a $68 million construction loan to Skyrock Capital for Bayonne Luxury Waterwalk, a 180-unit rental building on a 2.3-acre waterfront site at 219 West Fifth Street in Bayonne, New Jersey, along Newark Bay.

Why it matters. Construction financing for ground-up multifamily has been among the hardest capital to secure as banks retrenched and rates stayed elevated. A private lender writing a $68 million construction loan is a signal that debt for well-located rental starts remains available — at a price — particularly in supply-constrained submarkets ringing New York. It reinforces the role private credit now plays in filling the gap banks left in the multifamily pipeline.

The numbers. The six-story project devotes two floors to parking and will include a swimming pool and fitness center. The sponsor acquired the 2.3-acre site for $4.55 million in 2019, and the loan closes a years-long path from land assembly to a funded start on the Newark Bay waterfront. Elan Goldberg, co-head of originations at Bravo, originated the debt. “Bayonne’s waterfront is attracting serious long-term investment, and we were proud to give this sponsor the certainty to build,” said CEO Aaron Krawitz.

What’s next. With financing closed, construction can proceed toward delivery of the 180 units into a Hudson County rental market that has drawn spillover demand from New York City. The loan adds to a broader trend of private credit backing multifamily development that traditional lenders have stepped back from across the national market, where debt funds have become the default source of construction capital for mid-sized rental projects.