Ground-Up Construction Loans for Real Estate Investors
A ground-up construction loan finances building a property from nothing — from vacant land or a teardown to a finished, new structure. Essencap is a direct private lender funding ground-up construction across the New York metro and nationwide, with capital released in stages as the build progresses.
This isn't a renovation loan or a loan to buy a standing building. It's financing to create one — and because we're a direct lender, the person who underwrites your project is the person who keeps the draws moving as you build.
What is a ground-up construction loan, and how does it work?
A ground-up construction loan is short-term financing built for new construction — putting up a building where there wasn't one, on land you own or are acquiring. It's different from Essencap's other short-term loans in a specific way: a fix & flip loan renovates an existing building, and a commercial or bridge loan finances a property that already stands. A ground-up loan funds the build itself.
Because there's no finished building to lend against yet, the loan is underwritten on the project — the land, the construction budget and plans, the projected value when complete, and your experience as a builder or sponsor. The money doesn't come all at once. It's released in draws tied to construction milestones, so financing tracks the actual progress of the build.
When the project is finished, the loan is repaid — typically by selling the completed property or refinancing into longer-term financing.
How construction draws work
On a ground-up loan, you don't receive the full construction budget at closing. Capital is released in draws as the build hits defined milestones — for example, site work and foundation, framing, and later stages through completion. You reach a milestone, request the draw, and funds are released to fund the next phase.
This structure protects the project on both sides: financing follows real, verifiable progress, and you're not carrying interest on capital you haven't put to work yet. The risk with the wrong lender is a slow or unreliable draw — on a construction site, a delayed draw means idle crews, missed schedules, and carrying costs piling up.
That's where a direct lender with a real person accountable for your project matters. At Essencap, the same team that underwrote your build handles your draws — so when a milestone is met, the funding keeps the job moving instead of holding it up.
What Essencap finances
Essencap funds ground-up construction across residential and mixed-use projects, including:
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Residential construction — two- and three-family and small multifamily builds
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Multifamily & condo projects — new residential buildings, including condo developments
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Mixed-use construction — new buildings combining commercial and residential space
From smaller residential builds up through larger multifamily and mixed-use projects — Essencap has financed ground-up construction from single-building projects up to a $32M development. The right structure depends on the project, the plans, and the exit.
The Essencap difference
Construction is where lender reliability is tested hardest. A build has a schedule, a crew, and carrying costs — and a lender who can't keep pace turns a good project into an expensive problem.
A real underwriter who understands construction. We underwrite the land, the plans, the budget, and your experience — comfortable with the risk profile of a build a conventional lender treats as too complicated.
Draws that keep the build moving. The same team that underwrote your project handles your draws, so funding tracks your milestones instead of stalling your site.
Certainty on a project that can't afford surprises. We're honest up front about whether we can do the deal — and the terms we quote are the terms you close.
We know how the NY metro builds. Decades of construction and development deals across Queens, Brooklyn, and the wider New York metro — the neighborhoods, the timelines, and the values.
Real construction deals
Ground-up construction projects Essencap has funded:
Downtown Brooklyn
$2.85M ground-up financing for a 7-unit condo project
Jamaica, Queens
$1M ground-up construction loan, three-family building
Jamaica, Queens
$700K ground-up construction loan, two-family building
Who ground-up construction loans are for
Ground-up construction financing is built for the investor, developer, or builder taking on new construction — someone who controls a lot or a teardown and needs staged capital to build, without a bank's timeline or a conventional lender's discomfort with construction risk.
There's a natural next step, too. When the build is complete, the loan is repaid by selling the finished property — or, if you're keeping it, by refinancing into a 30-year DSCR loan for a buy-and-hold, or longer-term commercial financing for a larger asset. One lender across the full arc: the build now, the permanent financing next.