Daol Asset acquires RFR’s 285 Madison valued at $350M in Grand Central

The Korean firm Daol Asset Management in care of Ocean West Capital Partners through the entity KTB CRE Debt Fund No. 11 acquired the office building (O4) at 285 Madison Avenue in Grand Central, Manhattan, from RFR Holding  in a transaction valued at $350 million.
The deal closed on April 16, 2025 and was recorded on April 28, 2025. The property has 407,127 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $859 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 seller bought the property on July 15, 2013, for $356,388. The signatory for Daol Asset Management and Ocean West Capital Partners was Ryan Tucker . The contract date was April 16, 2025. Ten31’s The Promote first reported that Daol Asset Management, which provided a $205 million mezzanine loan, won the auction with its credit bid. RFR did not bid, the Promote reported.

At the same time, Daol Asset Management borrowed $270 million from IGIS Asset Management to finance the purchase.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Daol Asset Management had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller RFR Holding purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $53.6 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $639.8 million over the same time period. The 407,127-square-foot property generated revenue of $39.8 million or $98 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Grand Central has 407,127 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 175 feet deep with a total lot size of 21,887 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $185.4 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by IGIS Asset Management on April 16, 2025.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in three lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $270 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on December 30, 2024, by Series 2018-285M and KeyBank against RFR Holding, Aby Rosen, and Michael Fuchs. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $5,275 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 14, 2015. 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 Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were four pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 19 commercial properties representing 2,365,691 square feet of the 2,731,781 square feet. The largest owner is Sl Green Realty, followed by Ocean West Capital Partners and then Rfr Holding.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 94 percent of the 2.7 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RFR Holding owned at least 19 commercial properties in New York City with 3,405,194 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.5 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 86 percent of the 3,405,194 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 10 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 3 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Ocean West Capital Partners owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 407,127 square feet and a city-determined market value of $170.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Daol Asset Management owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 407,127 square feet and a city-determined market value of $170.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

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