$365M rehab loan for two UN office properties in Turtle Bay

The New York State benefit entity United Nations Development Corporation as borrower signed a renovation construction loan with the bondholders’ trustee Bank Of New York Mellon valued at $365 million for two office properties including the office building (O4) at 323 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan and office condo at 787 First Avenue in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 30, 2025 and was recorded on June 4, 2025. The two properties have 978,202 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $373 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for United Nations Development Corporation was Robert Cole . The fee is owned by the Bishop and Friedfertig families, which leases the fee to the UNDC. The buildings are owed by the City of New York, which leases the buildings to the UNDC.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received one DOB violation and $600 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Turtle Bay, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 9 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Turtle Bay has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $114.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Turtle Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 186,875 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 323 East 44th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 14 commercial properties representing 189,855 square feet of the 1,337,242 square feet. The two identified owners are Brodsky Organization and Kanamori America.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 96,501 square feet. It is a 96,501 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Joseph Stavrach with plans filed August 26, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space.

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