S3 Capital Provides $45M Construction Loan for Williamsburg Church Site Development

Developer David Grunfeld, operating via the entity GW Infinity, has secured a $45 million leasehold construction loan from S3 Capital to build a 17-story residential building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Located at 277 North Eighth Street, the proposed development will contain 99 apartments, with 20 percent designated as affordable housing under New York City's 485-x tax incentive program.

The project site is controlled through a long-term ground lease with the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Demolition plans were initially filed in December 2025 to clear an existing vacant two-story structure. According to S3 Capital, structuring the financing around the ground-lease terms permitted the developer to move forward without the heavy upfront capital expenditure required for a fee-simple land purchase.

Positioned three blocks from the Bedford Avenue L train subway station, the project targets a submarket marked by tight residential fundamentals, featuring vacancy rates around 2 percent and roughly 6 percent annual rent growth. For urban developers, the transaction demonstrates how long-term faith-based ground leases combined with post-421-a incentives can unlock infill density in high-barrier submarkets.