Fisher Brothers signs $500M refi for office building in Midtown East

Fisher Brothers through the entity Fisher-Park Lane Owner LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank and JPMorgan Chase through the entity Citi Real Estate Funding Inc valued at $500 million for two properties including the office building (O4) at 299 Park Avenue in Midtown East, Manhattan and hotel building (H1) at 111 East 48th Street in Midtown East, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 7, 2025 and was recorded on February 21, 2025. The prior lenders were New York Life Insurance Company, Munchener Hypothekenbank, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Dusseldorfer Hypothekenbank and Hartford Life Insurance Company which held debt that had an original loan amount of $325 million. The two properties have 1,482,888 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $337 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 Fisher Brothers was Winston Fisher . The signatories for Citibank and JPMorgan Chase were Jonathan Misher and John Spears. Crain’s reported the loan last month.

Prior sales and revenue

The two properties with a total of 1,482,888 square feet of built space generated revenue of $231.3 million per year or $156 per square foot.

The property

The office building in Midtown East has 1,482,888 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 40,166 square feet. 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 $467 million.

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 $14,525 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, two out of the two 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 neighborhood

In Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 18 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 29 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 299 Park Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the four commercial properties representing 1,339,888 square feet of the 2,379,169 square feet. The largest owner is Constellation Hotels Holding Limited, followed by Sovereign Partners and then Varde Partners.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 2.4 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Fisher Brothers owned at least five commercial properties with 372 residential units in New York City with 4,310,020 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.9 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $652 million in debt, borrowed from Morgan Stanley and New York Life Insurance Company. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 91 percent of the 4,310,020 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 9 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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