Sabet Group pays $10M to long-time owners for mixed-use in Lenox Hill

Sabet Group through the entity 19 E 71 Holdings LLC paid $10 million to Gary Rubin through the entity 19 East 71st Street LLC for the four-unit mixed-use building (S9) at 19 East 71st Street in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on April 30, 2025 and was recorded on May 9, 2025. The property has 9,120 square feet of built space and 17,410 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,540 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,096 and the price per buildable square foot is $376 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 Gary Rubin was Gary Rubin. The signatory for Sabet Group was Matthew Sabetfard . The contract date was June 6, 2024. An individual named Robert Rubin was the owner of the property in 1969 and it had been in the family since that time.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Sabet Group purchased 14 properties in 12 transactions for a total of $121.9 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Gary Rubin had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Gary Rubin, head officer and Bernard Friedman, officer. The business entity is 19 East 71st Street Llc.

The property

The mixed-use building with 4 residential units in Lenox Hill has 9,120 square feet of built space and 17,410 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,540 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,654 square feet. The zoning is C5-1 which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Upper East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.3 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 received $1,055 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 11, 2012. 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 Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has 3.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th 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 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the nine commercial properties representing 27,621 square feet of the 122,596 square feet. The largest owner is Scott Lerman, followed by Witold Szewczyk and then Salt Equities.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 52 percent of the 122,596 square feet of built space are mixed-use buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sabet Group owned at least 48 commercial properties with 832 residential units in New York City with 725,837 square feet and a city-determined market value of $218.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $473.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, Citibank, and Greystone & Co. respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 61 percent of the 725,837 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with hotel properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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