By Joshua Burd
A Boston-based mortgage banking firm has closed a $95 million loan to recapitalize a Jersey City apartment complex and allow it to continue to offer federally subsidized affordable housing.
The firm, Rockport Mortgage Corp., said the loan will serve the Summit Plaza Apartments on Newark Avenue with a 2.95 percent fixed interest rate and 35-year term. The transaction provides more than $15 million in funding for capital and energy upgrades, while securing a 20-year extension of its federal assistance contract under Section 8 program.
Summit Plaza is a 291-unit property in the Journal Square section of Jersey City. According to Multi-Housing News, 289 of those units receive Section 8 assistance.
Rockport worked with the owner, the Boston, New York and New Jersey U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offices, along with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, to complete the recapitalization. The firm secured the loan through the Federal Housing Administration’s Section 223(f) Insured Loan Program.
“Our team is deeply committed to the preservation of quality, affordable housing across the nation through a variety of financing strategies to meet the needs of owners and stakeholders,” Dan Lyons, managing partner of Rockport Mortgage Corp., said in a prepared statement. “The Summit Plaza transaction will reinvigorate the Journal Square transportation district, improve and preserve a critical resource for affordable housing in this community, enhance tenants’ safety and comfort, improve operational efficiencies, fund the installation of leading-edge, sustainable energy systems, and increase the Section 8 rents to market-driven levels.”
