Alma Realty signs $83M refi loan with Zions Bancorporation for 1,260-unit portfolio in Crown Heights

Alma Realty through the entity 480 St. Marks Ave LLC (and others) as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Zions Bancorporation valued at $83 million for five residential elevator properties with 1,260 residential units including the 159-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 545 Prospect Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 76-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 713 Classon Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and 65-unit residential elevator building (D3) at 500 St Marks Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on April 14, 2026 and was recorded on April 23, 2026. The prior lender was Flagstar Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $82.3 million.The five properties have 392,779 square feet of built space and 51,899 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $211 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 Alma Realty was Efstathios Valiotis . The signatory for Zions Bancorporation was Brian K. Bokor .

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 545 Prospect Place.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Efstahios Valiotis, head officer and Nicholas Conway, agent. The business entities are Alma Realty Corp and 545 Prospect Llc. The five properties with a total of 392,779 square feet of built space generated revenue of $13.1 million per year or $33 per square foot.

The property

The residential elevator building with 159 residential units at 545 Prospect Place in Crown Heights has frontage of 247 feet and is 94 feet deep with a total lot size of 23,600 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6A which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $26.2 million. Zions Bancorporation on April 14, 2026 bought a loan with an original principal of $82.3 million from Flagstar Bank signed by Sean D. Westfall , secured by 545 Prospect Place, 500 St Marks Avenue, 713 Classon Avenue, 565 Prospect Place, and 480 St Marks Avenue, when owned by Alma Realty . The property has 159 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2024.

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 $2,560 in ECB penalties, 18 housing violations, and $8,185 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, four out of the five buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On the tax block of 545 Prospect Place, PincusCo has identified the owners of 14 of the 26 commercial properties representing 540,991 square feet of the 586,031 square feet. The largest owner is Alma Realty, followed by Benny Shlaff and then Tazul Islam Bhuiyan.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 25,731 square feet. The largest is a 25-unit, 13,771 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Garbo & Company and filed by Yaniv Garbo with plans filed February 19, 2025 and permitted April 21, 2026. The second largest is a 16-unit, 11,960 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kieran Treanor with plans filed February 5, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 82 percent of the 586,031 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 10 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Alma Realty owned at least 144 commercial properties with 6,528 residential units in New York City with 7,307,097 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.5 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $798.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Bank, New York Community Bank, and Efstathios Valiotis respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 66 percent of the 7,307,097 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 37 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 31 percent of the space.

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