Albert Kalimian ups debt from $62M to $240M for office in Flatiron District

Albert Kalimian through the entity Ak 79 Fifth LLC as borrower signed a loan with lenders Citibank, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase valued at $240 million for the office building at 79 Fifth Avenue in Flatiron District, Manhattan. The prior debt was $62 million.
The deal closed on April 29, 2022 and was recorded on June 1, 2022. The property has 272,566 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $880 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 owner bought the property on August 2, 2004, for $13.4 million. The Kalimian family recently reconfigured millions of dollars of real estate through tenant-in-common structures, including this asset.

The property

The 79 Fifth Avenue parcel has frontage of 106 feet and is 159 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,825 square feet. The lot is irregular. The property is in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $110.8 million. The most recent loan totaled $62 million and was provided by Citibank on March 22, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $2,400 in ECB penalties and $2,400 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Flatiron District, the majority, or 62 percent of the 27.7 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Flatiron District has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 583,415 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 15 commercial properties representing 339,203 square feet of the 814,332 square feet. The largest owner is Kalimian family, followed by Caiola family and then 73 5th Avenue LLC. There is one active new building construction project totaling 63,802 square feet. It is a 88-unit, 63,802-square-foot R-1 building developed by Trevor Stahelski with plans filed October 10, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 839,699 square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 79 Fifth Avenue, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $77.3 million. The most recent of the three was 73 5th Avenue LLC which bought two condo units in the 2,330-square-foot, 21-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 73 5th Avenue and one other property for $6.2 million from Robin Gross on March 8, 2022.
One of those four items was a loan which James D. Daniels borrowed $20 million from Valley National Bank secured by the 30,680-square-foot, 16-unit rental (D6) on 9 East 16th Street on November 19, 2020.

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