Truist's $277M Jersey City loan prices waterfront multifamily

Truist has committed $277 million of construction financing to Rockpoint and Urby for the second phase of a 748-unit tower on the Jersey City waterfront, Commercial Observer first reported. The loan backs 201 Hudson – by Urby, the Paulus Hook project the two firms acquired in July when they bought the land at 201 Hudson Street.

The 69-story tower will hold 528,000 rentable square feet, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and amenities including a pool, a fitness center and coworking space. Rebecca M. Cox, senior vice president and market manager at Truist National Real Estate, said the financing reflects the bank's commitment to 'premier sponsors pursuing transformative multifamily developments in high-growth urban markets.'

Katie Kennedy, Truist's Northeast market leader, led the transaction, with Walt Reece of Truist Securities leading the syndication. Newmark negotiated the debt with Jordan Roeschlaub, Chris Kramer, Holden Witkoff and Jack Fenton, and advised the sponsors on the joint-venture capitalization with Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Michael Collins. The syndication is being assembled around the loan, which means Truist is not carrying the full $277 million on its own.

At $277 million, the facility works out to roughly $370,000 per planned apartment and about $525 per square foot of rentable space, a pricing level for a waterfront infill tower that reflects the bank's view of the location and the sponsorship. The underwrite says construction lenders are open for business, but the selectivity is visible in the structure: the loan is attached to a sponsored, waterfront tower, and the bank is underwriting to a future rent roll that has to clear $525 a foot.

The deal also arrives with construction across office, industrial and apartment markets down, as this publication has reported—creating leverage for existing owners and meaning the few projects that do get financed carry more weight for developers. Truist's platform is moving on multiple fronts, too: its Grandbridge subsidiary just took its first CMBS servicing assignment on two Bellevue towers, and in the New York region, the shortage is increasingly about apartment buildings to buy, and new Jersey City supply answers that in a direct way.

For multifamily construction lending, this is a reference point, not a reopening. The next construction loan pitch deck will quote $370,000 a unit, and sponsors without an equivalent waterfront address and the same caliber of sponsorship will have to argue around it.