Jones Lang LaSalle


GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Metrovest Gets $105M Condo Conversion Loan
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: January 27, 2006 07:05am

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JERSEY CITY-New York City-based developer Metrovest Equities has obtained a $105 million condominium conversion/construction loan for the initial phase of the Beacon, which is said to be the largest historical redevelopment project in New Jersey history. The Beacon is Metrovest Equities’ conversion of the two-million-sf former Jersey City Medical Center campus into a residential condo complex.

First commissioned by legendary Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague in the 1920s, the city-owned facility was completed in 1941 on the Palisade cliffs of this city, but became surplus property in 2003 when the medical center operation was moved to brand-new quarters. That move was necessitated not by the medical center outgrowing the campus, but by the fact that it was too big, according to city officials. The complex’s size and age made it an unsupportable financial burden, officials say.

The funding was arranged by Adam Brostovski, principal, Adam Hakim and Mark Hakim, senior associates of the GCP Capital

Group of Great Neck, NY. Fremont Investment and Loan provided the funding.
As reported by GlobeSt.com , shortly after the complex’s closure, the Jersey City EDC tapped Metrovest from among five contenders to redevelop the 14-acre, 10-building Art Deco landmark property. At build-out, the $250-million project will include a total of 1,200 condo units, along with about 100,000 sf of retail, office and community space and an 800-acre parking facility. Its other features will include a child care center, a health and fitness center, a performing arts center and a museum dedicated to the history of the medical facility.

The first phase covered by the just-obtained conversion/construction funding includes 315 residential units in two buildings located at the intersection of Baldwin and Montgomery streets. About two-thirds of those initial units have been sold in the four months since they hit the market, according to George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest.

“This lender’s experience with this kind of construction was important in this case,” says Filopolous. He terms his project “the largest preservation project of its kind in the nation.”