Wharton Properties signs $100M refi with Rialto for retail in Harlem

Wharton Properties through the entity 125th & Lenox Owner LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Rialto Management Group through the entity RREF V- D Direct Lending Investments, LLC valued at $100 million for the retail building (K6) at 100 West 125th Street in Harlem, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 29, 2025 and was recorded on August 1, 2025. The prior lender was Valley National Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $95 million. The property has 160,501 square feet of built space and 37,064 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 197,456 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $623 and the price per buildable square foot is $506 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 August 28, 2017, for $84.1 million. The signatory for Wharton Properties was Jeff Sutton . The signatory for Rialto Management Group was Liat Heller .

The property

The retail building in Harlem has 160,501 square feet of built space and 37,064 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 197,456 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 201 feet deep with a total lot size of 32,800 square feet. The zoning is C4-4D which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $57.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $95 million and was provided by Valley National Bank on September 8, 2022.

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 $18,570 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on December 12, 2016. 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 Harlem, The bulk, or 43 percent of the 81.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Harlem has 2.8 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $762.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, Harlem has 3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 4.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 11 commercial properties representing 220,542 square feet of the 427,462 square feet. The largest owner is Wharton Properties, followed by Artc and then Solil Management.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 135,270 square feet. The largest is a 68,296 square-foot assembly (A-3) building submitted by Sheila Mcdaniel with plans filed December 27, 2017 and permitted October 6, 2021. The second largest is a 66,974 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Gary Feldman with plans filed June 20, 2016 and permitted December 21, 2016.

The majority, or 49 percent of the 427,462 square feet of built space are retail buildings, with office buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Wharton Properties owned at least 87 commercial properties with 204 residential units in New York City with 3,303,019 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.7 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $263.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Valley National Bank, Bank of China, and Provident Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 68 percent of the 3,303,019 square feet of built space are office properties, with retail properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 86 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 10 percent of the space.

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