PBC USA Real Estate signs $359.6M refi for office tower in Grand Central
PBC USA Real Estate through the entity 452 Fifth Owners LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with a lender through the trustee Reznik Paz Nevo Trusts valued at $359.6 million for two office properties including the office building (O4) at 452 5th Avenue in Grand Central, Manhattan and office building (O3) at 1 West 39th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on May 28, 2024 and was recorded on May 30, 2024. The prior lender was JPMorgan Chase which held debt that had an original loan amount of $350 million.
The two properties have 739,442 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $486 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 PBC USA Real Estate was Eliyahu Elefant and Baruch Itzhak. The signatory for Reznik Paz Nevo Trusts was Hillel Lazarus. PBC is the US affiliate of Israel-based Property and Building Corp.
Prior sales and revenue
The two properties with a total of 739,442 square feet of built space generated revenue of $76.2 million per year or $103 per square foot.
The property
The office building in Grand Central has 739,442 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 197 feet and is 185 feet deep with a total lot size of 32,834 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 property is an Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $344.2 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 $3,925 in OATH penalties in the last year.
Development
For the tax lot buildings, one 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 Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 43.5 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 2.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $646.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. For development, Grand Central has 3.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were five pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.
The block
On the tax block of 452 5th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 19 commercial properties representing 1,322,449 square feet of the 2,047,469 square feet. The largest owner is Skyline Developers, followed by PBC USA Real Estate and then Kendor Development.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 880,829 square feet. The largest is a 283-unit, 824,216 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by HFZ Capital Group and filed by John Simonlacaj with plans filed January 9, 2014 and permitted July 30, 2014. The second largest is a 62-unit, 54,367 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Skyline Developers and filed by Leonard Wilf with plans filed December 17, 2014 and permitted July 28, 2016.
The majority, or 88 percent of the 2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 6 percent of the space.
The borrower
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Pbc Usa Real Estate owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 739,442 square feet and a city-determined market value of $375.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are office properties. They are all located in Manhattan.
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