Better Living Properties signs $78M refi with Citibank for 14 properties in NYC

Better Living Properties through the entity 1111 Flatbush Realty, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank through the entity Citi Real Estate Funding Inc. valued at $78 million for 14 properties with 201 residential units including the 16-unit property at 2848 Brighton 7th Street in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, 20-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 210 Rivington Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan, and 25-unit residential elevator building (D9) at 624 East 11th Street in Alphabet City, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 31, 2025 and was recorded on August 6, 2025. The prior lender was Dime Community Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $70 million.The 14 properties have 137,316 square feet of built space and 40,781 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 151,258 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $568 and the price per buildable square foot is $515 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 Better Living Properties was Ariel Soudry . The signatory for Citibank was Anna Gutteridge .

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 17 Stanton Street.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jonathan Soudry, head officer and Sander Bromberg, site manager. The business entity is Saj Realty Llc. The 14 properties with a total of 137,316 square feet of built space generated revenue of $6.8 million per year or $49 per square foot.

The property

The residential walkup building with 7 residential units in Lower East Side has 137,316 square feet of built space and 40,781 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 151,258 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 33 feet and is 50 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,666 square feet. The zoning is C6-3A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.3 million. The most recent loan totaled $70 million and was provided by Dime Community Bank on June 16, 2022.

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, $20,000 in ECB penalties, three housing violations, and $23,855 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, two out of the 14 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 17 Stanton Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of 11 of the 26 commercial properties representing 255,039 square feet of the 377,750 square feet. The largest owner is David Paz, followed by Arthur Karpati and then Better Living Properties.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 91,871 square feet. The largest is a 26-unit, 48,724 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Omnia Group and filed by David Paz with plans filed February 9, 2022 and permitted June 14, 2022. The second largest is a 14-unit, 43,147 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Scott Kummings with plans filed November 22, 2017 and permitted January 24, 2019.

The majority, or 37 percent of the 377,750 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Better Living Properties owned at least 15 commercial properties with 211 residential units in New York City with 144,171 square feet and a city-determined market value of $38.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $70 million in debt, borrowed from Dime Community Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 64 percent of the 144,171 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 33 percent of the space. The bulk, or 83 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 17 percent of the space.

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