Lightstone Capital lends $29.5M on 102-unit Orange lease-up

Lightstone Capital lent $29.5 million to PEEK Capital against the Lincoln, a 102-unit apartment building in Orange, N.J., that received its final certificate of occupancy in September. Commercial Observer first reported the transaction.

The pre-stabilization bridge refinances the $20.5 million construction loan Amboy Bank provided in 2024, according to Real Estate NJ. It supports lease-up and stabilization at the five-story, full-block building at 407 Highland Avenue.

For an allocator buying multifamily bridge exposure, the $29.5 million loan carries about $289,000 of debt per unit and is being advanced while the rent roll is still forming. That is roughly $9 million more than the construction loan it replaces, with the sponsor's early equity release coming from the same pool.

“Peek Properties is a best-in-class sponsor, and Lightstone executed flawlessly on this pre-stabilization bridge loan, which allowed Peek to repatriate equity early in the leasing process,” said Daniel Cohen of Ackman-Ziff, who advised on the transaction, in a statement to Commercial Observer.

Eugene Rozovsky, a senior managing director at Lightstone Capital, said in a statement that newly built multifamily properties with proven sponsorship records have always offered attractive lending opportunities as they move toward stabilization. The Lincoln has begun leasing one- and two-bedroom residences since the September certificate of occupancy.

Lightstone Capital ran a comparable transaction in July, refinancing Kaya Apartments, a 78-unit development in San Diego, with a $34 million loan. That works out to about $436,000 a unit against the Lincoln's $289,000, though the two markets and unit mixes differ.

The Lincoln sits one block from N.J. Transit's Highland Avenue station, with service to Newark and to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. Orange and neighboring East Orange have drawn luxury apartment construction for several years as renters are priced out of New York City, per Commercial Observer.

Lightstone also appeared on the borrowing side this month: as Private Wealth Daily previously reported, JLL arranged an MF1 loan on Lightstone's $88 million Manhattan apartment purchase.