Northwind lends $275M for 675 Third Avenue conversion

Northwind Group provided $275 million of construction financing to David Werner Real Estate Investments and Nathan Berman's MetroLoft to convert 675 Third Avenue into 450 apartments, Commercial Observer first reported.

The new loan refinances a $90 million Northwind acquisition loan and funds a build-out already under way. Northwind made that loan to David Werner and MetroLoft, which bought the building from the Durst Organization for $100 million in April 2025. Pricing on the new loan was not disclosed.

For an allocator in construction debt, the deal is a clean comparison: same lender, same sponsor, a loan roughly three times larger, and work already begun with borrower equity. Northwind's exposure on the asset rises from $90 million to $275 million, with the earlier loan repaid, against an April 2025 purchase price of $100 million.

At 450 units, the new debt works out to about $611,000 per apartment. A quarter of the units will be affordable housing under the 467-m program, according to Northwind. Leverage of 2.75 times the purchase price implies the lender is underwriting the converted apartment building rather than the office it replaces.

The financing comes a few months after a July 7 structural collapse at the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 and 219 East 42nd Street, where MetroLoft and Werner are converting a 1,600-unit apartment building and adding 11 floors. Collapsing columns and falling bricks led to evacuations and street closures. Workers stabilized the building by the next morning, Commercial Observer reported.

Northwind Group's Ran Eliasaf said he took "no pause" before extending development capital to the same sponsorship. "Unfortunately, Pfizer happened, but it's a construction mishap and it doesn't reflect on our conversion in any way," he said.

"It's a fairly simple conversion, with no structural work," he said. "It's basically an interior fit-out." The building spans the full block of Third Avenue from 42nd to 43rd Street, near Grand Central Terminal. "Nathan Berman is the most experienced converter in the city," Eliasaf said.

Conversion lending remains active. As Private Wealth Daily previously reported, Octagon lent $48.25 million last week to convert the 7Up headquarters into 118 apartments. Northwind's loan is roughly six times larger for under four times the unit count, with borrower equity already funding early work at 675 Third Avenue.