SMA Equities identified as buyer of $12.5M Yorkville property, adds to assemblage

UPDATED 1:49 p.m., January 29, 2025: SMA Equities has been identified via sources as the buyer behind the $12.5 million purchase of 1497 Third Avenue, a 25-foot-wide, mid-block structure between 84th and 85th streets in Yorkville, which adds to an assemblage the Great Neck-based firm led by Samy Mahfar has been piecing together since at least 2007.

PincusCo reported the sale earlier this week but did not identify the buyer. The seller is an entity related to the Kalimian family, which provided an $11.5 million purchase money mortgage. SMA did not respond to a request for comment.

Edward J. Bullard Jr., the attorney who signed on behalf of the buyer entity, DBK 1497 Third LLC, denied that SMA Equities was the buyer. “You have disseminated inaccurate ownership information,” Bullard told PincusCo.

The assembling goes back to at least 2007. That year Mahfar bought 1491 Third Avenue, at the corner of East 84th Street, for $33.75 million. The same year he signed an agreement to buy an undisclosed amount of air rights from the owner of 208 East 85th Street, though there is no record the deal was consummated.

Then in 2010 SMA Equities paid $5.5 million for 1501 Third Avenue, followed by the 2016 purchase of 1495 Third Avenue for $18.2 million, and now the purchase of 1497 Third.
In between 1497 Third Avenue and 1501 Third Avenue is 1499 Third Avenue, which is owned by the McDonald’s Corporation. The fast-food chain is seen as an unlikely seller of the fee, but would have unused air rights.
SMA Equities refinanced the loan for three parcels of this potential development in 2021 with a $34.3 million loan from Safra National Bank, as PincusCo reported at the time. SMA signed another loan with Safra National Bank in December 2024 for five other properties it owns in Manhattan, totaling $31.2 million.

UPDATED with a comment from Edward J. Bullard Jr.

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