Long Island City Tower Secures $350M in Financing

American Lions, a joint venture between Fetner Properties and the Lions Group, has secured a $350M debt and capitalization for The Italic, a 363-unit luxury residential tower at 26-32 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City.

The Carlyle Group is one of the equity partners, and the debt includes a $35.8M loan from Brookfield.

JLL Capital Markets arranged the financial package for the borrower. JLL’s Capital Markets Debt Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Director Christopher Peck and Director Alex Staikos. Senior Managing Director Rob Hinckley, Senior Director Steven Rutman and Director Nicco Lupo led JLL’s Capital Markets Equity Advisory team.

The 283,000K SF residential tower will have 10K SF of ground-floor retail space. The property will feature 254 market-rate luxury units and 109 affordable units, a ratio of 70% to 30%.

The units will include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floorplans averaging 770 SF. Amenities will include a fitness center, a two-bay golf simulator and lounge, a basketball court, a resident lounge, a co-working space and a rooftop terrace.

Situated at the intersection of Court Square and Queens Plaza, 26-32 Jackson Ave. is adjacent to a growing dining and retail corridor on Jackson Avenue.

Last month, investor Axel Stawski sold a five-story office building in Long Island City, the last of a block-wide group of properties he held in the Court Square neighborhood.

Stawski sold the property at 23-10 43rd Avenue in April for $50 million through the entity Long Island City Center LLC. Stawski purchased the site from the Bank of Austria in 1994 for an unknown price.

The buyer was the city’s School Construction Authority, which plans to demolish the building and replace it with a 547-seat school building on the 21,000K SF site.

The city is fulfilling a promise it made in 2018 as part of the controversial Long Island City Ramps project, which promised to bring development to the area surrounding the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge on-ramps, including a 50K SF public park and apartment towers along Jackson Avenue.

The proposed school site is near two properties that were purchased by Carmel Partners from Stawski in March 2022 for $200M. Before the 421a tax abatement expired in June, Carmel laid the foundation for the development of a 66-story, 838K SF residential tower, including 17K SF of ground-floor retail.