Northwind's Second Conversion Loan in Four Days: $219M at 100 Wall

Northwind Group provided a $219 million construction loan on September 14 to convert floors 2 through 11 of 100 Wall Street, a 463,000 sq ft Financial District office tower, into 168 rental apartments. The borrowers are BLDG Management, the Lloyd Goldman firm, and David Werner Real Estate Investments, which bought the 29-story building as a joint venture in July 2024.

The critical detail is that this is a partial conversion. Floors 15 through 29 stay office, and that office is more than 95 percent leased and cash flowing while the lower third of the building is gutted and rebuilt as apartments.

Why it matters

Four days earlier, on September 11, we reported that Northwind lent $208 million to BH3 Management and Capstone Equities to convert 141 Willoughby Street, a 355,000 sq ft Downtown Brooklyn office tower, into 239 apartments. Add the two together and one debt fund has committed $427 million to two New York office-to-residential conversions inside four days, covering 407 apartments across 818,000 sq ft of office.

That is a concentration, not a diversification. Conversion construction debt at this size is coming from debt funds rather than banks, and the most active lender in the trade is doubling down inside a single week instead of spreading exposure across sponsors and boroughs. Ran Eliasaf’s firm counts 100 Wall Street as its eighth conversion financing in the city.

The numbers

The $219 million loan expands a $95 million predevelopment loan Northwind made on the same asset. Triton Construction is construction manager and Gensler is executive architect. The 168 units get a pool, fitness center, sports simulator, theatre and a rooftop deck with an outdoor kitchen. Northwind, founded in 2008, reports more than $11 billion in transactions across 400-plus properties in 28 states.

What’s next

Both deals are partial conversions that keep commercial floors in the building, but the underwriting is not identical. At 141 Willoughby the retained commercial space sat empty, because the tower never leased after completion. At 100 Wall Street the office is occupied, which changes three things: construction logistics run around paying tenants, the work has to be phased so the upper floors stay usable, and in-place office income becomes part of the credit rather than a future lease-up assumption. For sponsors pitching conversions, that second structure is the harder build and the easier loan.

See our coverage of Northwind’s $208M loan on a Downtown Brooklyn conversion and the New York market.