SYRACUSE — The Community Preservation Corp., Inc. (CPC) recently announced the closing of a more than $12 million Freddie Mac mortgage to support the Merchants Commons building at 220 S. Warren St. in Syracuse. Merchants Commons, a combination of the former Snow Building and Merchants Bank Building, includes 66 residential units and more than 34,000 […]
SYRACUSE — The Community Preservation Corp., Inc. (CPC) recently announced the closing of a more than $12 million Freddie Mac mortgage to support the Merchants Commons building at 220 S. Warren St. in Syracuse.
Merchants Commons, a combination of the former Snow Building and Merchants Bank Building, includes 66 residential units and more than 34,000 square feet of commercial space, according to the CPC news release.
The loan will help maintain the structure’s residential units and commercial space, the organization added.
The borrowing entity is Merchants Commons, LLC, a newly formed limited-liability company that Joseph Hucko spearheaded, says Nicholas Petragnani, Jr., senior vice president and Central and Western New York regional director at CPC.
Merchants Commons, LLC had a construction loan for the project, says Petragnani. The construction loan is a short-term loan that will help a developer build a project.
Typically, a developer would need a permanent loan to pay the construction lender, he adds.
“The purpose of our loan was to pay off Mr. Hucko’s construction loan on that project,” says Petragnani.
Hucko is a local developer who also owns Washington St. Partners (WSP), which was responsible for the Jefferson Clinton Commons, a mixed-use construction project in Armory Square.
WSP also owns the former train station from which the Business Journal News Network operates.
The Freddie Mac loan has a seven-year term with a 30-year amortization schedule at an estimated fixed rate of 5.38 percent.
“The monthly mortgage payment that a developer makes on a project is probably a little bit lower because of the terms of the financing, which allows them to take some of the cash flow that they realize and put that back into the property to help maintain it,” he says.
CPC is one of a number of seller-servicers for Freddie Mac, says Petragnani.
“We originate the loans, we sell the loans to Freddie Mac, and we service the loan on their behalf,” he adds.
Petragnani describes the CPC as a “[nonprofit] mortgage bank” with a mission to “stabilize and enhance” neighborhoods.
“Freddie Mac has the same … their mission and their guidelines run parallel with CPC’s,” he adds.
About the CPC
The Community Preservation Corporation, Inc. is a New York City–based nonprofit mortgage lender providing capital to “underserved” neighborhoods throughout New York since 1974, according to its news release.
Its Central & Western region office is located at 315 N. Clinton St. in Syracuse, its website says.
Freddie Mac is the commonly known name of the McLean, Va.–based Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, an enterprise that Congress chartered in 1970, according to the Freddie Mac website.
Crews recently renovated Merchants Commons’ 48 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom rental apartments with concrete floors, granite countertops, and appliances, the CPC said.
The property is “fully leased,” the organization added. Its rental rates for the residential units range from $1,000 per month for one-bedroom units to $1,945 per month for two-bedrooms, it said.
Since 1995, the CPC has leveraged $146.6 million in total funding to help support more than 3,100 units of housing and 141 commercial spaces in Syracuse, the CPC said.
To date, the CPC has invested a total of more than $8.4 billion in over 157,000 units of housing, the nonprofit said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
