J. Safra Real Estate signs $14.3M refi with related firm for two office properties in Chinatown

J. Safra Real Estate through the entity Rockfeld Group Canal LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender J. Safra Sarasin through the entity Banque J. Safra Sarasin (Luxembourg) SA valued at $14.3 million for two office properties including the office building (O5) at 181 Canal Street and the adjacent office building (O5) at 183 Canal Street in Chinatown, Manhattan.
The deal closed on November 15, 2025 and was recorded on December 17, 2025. The prior lender was J. Safra Sarasin which held debt that had an original loan amount of $27.6 million. The two properties have 15,800 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $905 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 J. Safra Real Estate was Steven Montague and Carlos Bertaco . The signatory for J. Safra Sarasin was Mathieu Beaumont and Michel Priester . J. Safra Real Estate and J. Safra Sarasin are both divisions of J. Safra Group. J. Safra Real Estate is also known as JSRE Acquisitions.

J. Safra Real Estate is the real estate holding arm of the J. Safra Group. The banking divisions are Safra National Bank of New York; J. Safra Sarasin in Switzerland; and Banco Safra in Brazil.

Prior sales and revenue

The two properties with a total of 15,800 square feet of built space generated revenue of $1.4 million per year or $92 per square foot.

The property

The office building in Chinatown has 15,800 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 74 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,570 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.6 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 one DOB violation and $300 in OATH penalties 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 Chinatown, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 8.4 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Chinatown has 1.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $431.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 25th highest in Manhattan. For development, Chinatown has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 490,059 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 the tax block of 181 Canal Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 13 commercial properties representing 76,275 square feet of the 258,790 square feet. The largest owner is Jin Rong Zhang, followed by J. Safra Group and then Gregory Dadourian.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 258,790 square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

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