CPC closes on $9 million loan to transform former mill building in Frankin Square

SYRACUSE — The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) has closed on a $9 million Freddie Mac loan for Franklin View Apartments, a former mill building that was transformed into a mixed-use complex of rental apartments and office/warehouse space. 

Located at 717 N. Clinton St. in the Lakefront area of Franklin Square, the complex is comprised of two interconnected buildings. One is a four-story structure with 87 apartments and about 20,000 square feet of ground-floor office space. Impact Technologies, Upstate Printing, and Syracuse Office Environments are tenants in the building, according to CPC.

The borrower for Franklin View Apartments is Clinton Street SOMA Project LLC, whose sole member is Cosimo Zavaglia, a developer and manager of rental properties in the Syracuse region. 

CPC says it has partnered with Zavaglia on other Freddie Mac loans including a $6.5 million construction and permanent loan for Stonegate Apartments and a $5 million refinance loan for Newbury Apartments. Franklin View Apartments is managed by AJF Management, which is owned by Zavaglia. 

“CPC is pleased to again provide financing for a property in Franklin Square where there is strong demand for apartment units as well as for new professional office space,” Nick Petragnani, senior vice president/regional director of CPC’s Central and Western New York Region office, which handled the loan, said in a news release. 

Other CPC financing for properties in the Franklin Square area have included an $11 million permanent loan for the Lofts at Franklin Square and a $5.28 million construction and permanent loan for the 689 N. Clinton Street property (aka the Spaghetti Warehouse building).

CPC is a not-for-profit mortgage lender that finances residential multifamily development throughout New York. Since its founding in 1974, CPC says it has invested more than $7.9 billion in nearly 144,000 units of housing.