David May and Evan Boles of Progress Capital secured $54,500,000 in construction financing for the owners of a 179,100 square-foot state-of-the-art educational facility located at 155 Jefferson Street, Newark, NJ.
The property is the former site of the boarded-up St. James Hospital, which sat as a vacant eye sore for
the past 15 years. The sponsors will be completing a full-gut renovation to the existing structure, plus
an addition to the structure which will feature the newly built School of Architecture and Interior Design,
another career-focused high school added to the Newark Public Schools roster. The specialized school
will provide courses in architecture, computer-aided design, and construction technology, as well as
allow students to opt for the school’s traditional trade programs including plumbing, electrical, and
HVAC.
Situated in the Ironbound district of Newark, which is surrounded by four academic institutions
including Rutgers University (Newark Campus), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the New
Jersey Medical School (Rutgers), and Essex County College which are all in walking distance to the
building. The location is off of Elm Street and Lafayette Street, which is a ½ mile walk to Penn Station
and all the commercial shops and restaurants of downtown Newark.
Progress Capital, a commercial real estate mortgage advisory firm specializes in arranging debt financing
for commercial real estate owners and developers. Established in 1990, Progress Capital has closed over
$40 Billion in commercial loans with $150 Million of directly funded bridge loans.
