LNR-serviced trust takes back Thor’s Scribner building in Midtown with $151M judgment

LNR Partners as special servicer for the trust Comm 2014-UBS4, through the entity Comm 2014-Ubs4 Fifth Avenue, LLC, took title to the retail building (O6) at 597 5th Avenue in Midtown East, Manhattan and the adjacent mixed-use building (K4) at 3 East 48th Street. The expected use is to manage and hold for sale. The prior owner was Thor Equities through the entity 597 Scribner LLC, which lost the property in a foreclosure auction April 10, 2025, in which LNR won with a bid of $50,000. The state transfer tax was paid on the figure $153.7 million, slightly above the judgment amount of $151.3 million. The transfer amount in city property records was $55,950.
Case 650806/2023 LINK

The transfer closed on June 10, 2025 and was recorded on June 26, 2025. The two properties have 67,428 square feet of built space and 11,085 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,510 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,279 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,957 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 Thor Equities was the referee, Thomas R. Kleinberger. The signatory for LNR Partners and Comm 2014-UBS4 was Steven D. Ferreira . The contract date was June 10, 2025.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer LNR Partners had purchased any other properties and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $12.3 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Thor Equities purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $66.6 million and sold or lost 18 properties in eight transactions for a total of $394.1 million over the same time period.

The property

The retail buildings in Midtown East has 67,428 square feet of built space and 11,085 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 78,510 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 53 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,341 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 property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $46.7 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 $2,350 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 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 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 19.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 31 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other retail buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 597 5th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 20 commercial properties representing 1,510,992 square feet of the 2,546,047 square feet. The largest owner is Sl Green Realty, followed by Kingsville Investments and then Silk & Halpern Realty Associates.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 285,606 square feet. It is a 285,606 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Albert Sanfilippo with plans filed June 30, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 93 percent of the 2.5 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Thor Equities owned at least 22 commercial properties with 346 residential units in New York City with 670,309 square feet and a city-determined market value of $179.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $231.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as MetLife, Prime Finance, and AB CarVal Investors respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 59 percent of the 670,309 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 11 percent of the space. The bulk, or 71 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 29 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link