A Pre-Development Loan Became a $310 Million Tower

Affinius Capital originated $310 million of construction financing to Namdar Group for Park Tower at 8–16 Lott Street in Jersey City's Journal Square. The project is 1,049 units across 47 stories. CRE360 derived: roughly 22 units per floor and $295,520 of construction debt per unit.

The Jersey City Planning Board approved the tower in June 2026. Namdar had taken a $32 million pre-development loan from Post Road Group roughly a year before that vote. CRE360 derived: the pre-development tranche equals 10.3 percent of the eventual construction loan.

Approval in June, funded in September — three months from entitlement to construction close.

The sequencing is the lesson. Namdar bought optionality with expensive short-money before the entitlement risk was cleared, then refinanced that position into cheap construction debt once the board voted. Most sponsors describe that structure as too expensive to run. At 10.3 percent of the eventual senior loan, the pre-development tranche is cheaper than the equity dilution that would otherwise fund a long entitlement fight.

$295,520 per unit of debt on a 47-story concrete tower is a credible number for this submarket. It implies the lender is underwriting a total development cost meaningfully above that figure, with sponsor equity and land basis already contributed.

Journal Square is a PATH-adjacent transit node absorbing Manhattan-priced demand at a New Jersey basis. That is the entire thesis, and it has now attracted a debt fund willing to write a nine-figure single-asset construction check.

Implications. Single-asset construction loans above $300 million are back for the right sponsor, the right transit node and the right unit count. The gate is not the rate — it is entitlement certainty, and Namdar paid cash to buy that certainty early.

Flag: total development cost, rate, term, LTC and land basis not disclosed.