Blackstone, Rialto acquire Lenox Hill retail from RFR under threat of foreclosure

Former lenders Blackstone Group and Rialto Management Group through the entity Rss Sig Cre 2023 – Ny 26t, LLC acquired from RFR Holding through the entity 219 East 67th Street Retail LLC, the retail condominium unit at 219 East 67th Street in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is hold for sale. The transfer was $3.1 million. The lenders had filed a pre-foreclosure action in 2024.
The deal closed on July 18, 2025 and was recorded on July 24, 2025. The property has 2,869 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,076 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 RFR Holding was Richard Froom and Thomas Lavin . The signatory for Blackstone Group and Rialto Management Group was Jonathan Roberts. The contract date was July 18, 2025.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Blackstone Group purchased 32 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $800 million and sold 33 properties in three transactions for a total of $574.3 million over the past 24 months.
The seller RFR Holding purchased three properties in three transactions for a total of $138.6 million and sold 15 properties in seven transactions for a total of $1.6 billion over the same time period.

The property

The retail condo in Lenox Hill has 2,869 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 2,869 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $2.2 million commercial foreclosure filed on August 7, 2024, concerning a loan, filed by Blackstone Group and Rialto Capital against RFR Holding, Aby Rosen, and Michael Fuchs. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has 2.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 10 commercial properties representing 657,086 square feet of the 835,072 square feet. The largest owner is Rudin Management, followed by Bldg Management and then M. Melnick & Co..
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 73 percent of the 835,072 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Rfr Holding owned at least 19 commercial properties with 10 residential units in New York City with 2,777,610 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.3 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 82 percent of the 2,777,610 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 4 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Blackstone Group owned at least 45 commercial properties with 14,164 residential units in New York City with 20,721,441 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.6 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $2.5 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and NYC Housing Development Corporation respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 73 percent of the 20,721,441 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 21 percent of the space. The bulk, or 87 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 10 percent of the space.

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