Dealmaker: Merchants Capital Secures $18M for NYC Affordable Housing Capital Improvements

Merchants Capital’s New York office closed an $18.2 million Housing Development Corporation Fannie Mae Risk Share loan for Mannie Wilson Towers, a historic affordable housing development in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood.

Mannie Wilson Towers is located at 565 Manhattan Avenue.

The funding represented the first HDC Fannie Risk Share loan closed with Merchants Capital, a loan product created by the company. The 30-year loan included a 40-year amortization schedule.

Located in the former Sydenham Hospital, Mannie Wilson Towers provides 102 one- and two-bedroom units of restricted-income housing for seniors. As part of HUD’s Section 202 program, units are reserved for residents 62 years or older who usually earn 50 percent of the area median income or less. Additionally, the property is 100 percent encumbered by a Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment contract.

The building debuted in 1892 as Sydenham Hospital, historically known as the first medical facility in New York to voluntarily hire Black physicians. After private financial struggles, the hospital became part of the New York municipal hospital corporation in 1949. Nearly 90 years after it opened, the hospital closed in 1980 and was later reclaimed for senior citizen housing through the HUD 202 Program. In 2001, former U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel secured a waiver that allowed the unused medical center to be transformed into an income-restricted affordable housing development. The financing provided by Merchants Capital will allow property owner West Harlem Group Assistance to make necessary capital improvements and system upgrades throughout the building.