Singer & Bassuk Organization arranges $30 million loan for Turtle Bay Towers.

The Singer & Bassuk Organization has arranged a $30 million underlying mortgage for Turtle Bay Towers, a 338-unit cooperative apartment building located at 310 East 46th Street. The financing, which was provided by PruExpress through its advisor, JHP Realty Advisors, is believed to be one of the largest underlying loans ever placed on a New York City luxury cooperative apartment building.

The Singer & Bassuk Organization was represented in the transaction by Andrew J. Singer, chairman and CEO, and Kathleen McSharry, senior managing director.

Turtle Bay Towers has had an interesting development evolution. In 1973, Rockrose Development Corp. acquired and renovated the 32-story loft building, which had previously suffered a major natural gas explosion. The project presented numerous complications to the few developers who considered tackling a project of this magnitude. No one in the New York City development community had ever converted such a building to residential use. The property's continued utilization as a loft or office building was economically unfeasible and, finally, there was widespread concern about the structural integrity of the property following the explosion.

Rockrose evaluated the risks and rewards, decided to take on the rehabilitation and turned the project into a huge success as a luxury residential rental. It became the first major building convened under the expanded J-51 program and gained for Rockrose enormous publicity and credibility in its field.

The building remained a rental project until 1988, when Rockrose converted it to cooperative ownership. Underlying financing at that time was provided by the Equitable Life Assurance Society through Singer.

The current financing is the latest chapter in the 24-year relationship between Singer and the principals of Rockrose Development Corp. (who own the sponsor of Turtle Bay Towers). The relationship began in 1974 when he arranged the initial permanent financing of Turtle Bay Towers, then a newly renovated rental apartment building. Since that date, Singer has arranged over 25 permanent and construction loans for Rockrose and, in the past 18 months, The Singer & Bassuk Organization has closed seven financing transactions with Rockrose, which totaled approximately $433 million.

Singer has arranged debt and equity financing encompassing the entire range of property types, utilizing a wide variety of financing techniques. His activities have been nationwide. Aggregate financings by him exceed $5 billion and include in excess of $2.5 billion for office, retail and industrial properties, and $3 billion for residential and hotel properties and elder care facilities.

McSharry, who joined Singer in 1983, was involved in all aspects of the Turtle Bay Towers financing with PruExpress. She has played an important role in arranging many of the aforementioned loans for Rockrose.

In 1995, Singer was joined at the firm by Richard Bassuk, formerly president of Starrett Housing Corporation, a publicly-held real estate company. As Starrett's president, Bassuk was responsible for all development activities, including major 80/20 housing projects and numerous government-assisted and conventional housing developments. He was also responsible for the operations of the Levitt Corporation, a major single-family homebuilding company in the United States and Puerto Rico; HRH Construction Company, which built CitiCorp Center, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, Trump Tower and many other residential, commercial and institutional facilities; and Grenadier Realty Corp., a real estate management company responsible for more than 30,000 housing units.