Dealmaker: Walker & Dunlop Structures $385M Brooklyn Financing

470 Kent Avenue illustration courtesy of Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., structured nearly $385 million in financing for 470 Kent Avenue, a mixed-use development on the East River waterfront in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.

When completed, 470 Kent will include three towers totaling 627,000 gross square feet of for-sale residential, multifamily and retail offerings. The property will have multiple outdoor common terraces, an ice-skating rink and views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It will bring more than 500 new residences to Williamsburg’s waterfront, made up of 463 rental apartments (30% affordable) and 90 luxury condominiums.

The Naftali Group and Access Industries Inc., both headquartered in New York, retained Walker & Dunlop’s New York Capital Markets team including Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Schwartz and Jackson Irwin to arrange the financing for the first phase of construction. Bank OZK, Little Rock, Ark., and Barings, New York, financed the transaction.

Appel noted the lack of remaining development sites in the area solidifies 470 Kent’s 360-foot waterfront view. The East River Ferry, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Marcy Avenue J-M-Z train station and the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector will provide access to all five New York boroughs.