RFR signs $160M refi for office in Grand Central, ending pre-foreclosure action

RFR Holding through the entity 475 Fifth Avenue Owner Lp as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Citibank through the entity Citibank, N.A. valued at $160 million for the office building (O4) at 475 5th Avenue in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 20, 2025 and was recorded on February 26, 2025. The prior lenders was Citibank and JPMorgan Chase which held debt that had an original loan amount of $180 million.

The refinance ends a pre-foreclosure action Citibank and JPMorgan Chase filed last year that was discontinued on February 20, 2025.

The property has 220,413 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $725 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 September 28, 2011, for $143.9 million. The signatory for RFR Holding was Richard Froom . The signatory for Citibank was Ana Rosu Marmann .

Prior sales and revenue

The 220,413-square-foot property generated revenue of $31.2 million or $142 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Grand Central has 220,413 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 104 feet and is 140 feet deep with a total lot size of 14,675 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 city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $130.8 million. The most recent loan totaled $180 million and was provided by Citibank on May 19, 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $180 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on August 15, 2024, by Citibank and JPMorgan Chase against RFR Holding, Aby Rosen, and Michael Fuchs. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $2,500 in ECB penalties and $4,160 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 Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 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 3.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. For development, Grand Central is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 19 commercial properties representing 2,365,691 square feet of the 2,731,781 square feet. The largest owner is SL Green Realty, followed by Rfr Holding and then Eretz Group.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 94 percent of the 2.7 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RFR Holding owned at least 18 commercial properties in New York City with 2,850,407 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.1 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 87 percent of the 2,850,407 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 8 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 4 percent of the space.

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