Jacob Arabo’s Jacob & Co. signs $15M refi for retail, office in Midtown East

Jacob & Co., owned by Jacob Arabo, who is also known as Jacob the Jeweler, through the entity 48 East 57th Street, LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender KeyBank valued at $15 million for the office and retail building (O5) at 48 East 57th Street in Midtown East, Manhattan. Arabo was one of the holdouts that developer Harry Macklowe could not convince to sell for his luxury condo and retail development at 432 Park Avenue.
The deal closed on April 19, 2024 and was recorded on May 10, 2024. The prior lender was Series 2014-C21 which held debt that had an original loan amount of $15 million.
The property has 11,990 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $1,251 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 owner bought the property on February 11, 2004, for $12.1 million. The signatory for Jacob & Co. was Angela Arabov. The signatory for KeyBank was Cynthia M. Milioto.

The property

The office building in Midtown East has 11,990 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,412 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 $9.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. 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 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 $3.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 16.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 26 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 11 commercial properties representing 696,528 square feet of the 2,008,017 square feet. The two identified owners are Sl Green Realty and Michael L. Steinberg.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 15,663 square feet. It is a 15,663 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Mary Leprohon with plans filed April 27, 2015 and permitted February 12, 2016.

The majority, or 90 percent of the 2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 10 percent of the space.

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