Zar Property signs $36M loan for recent purchases in Midtown West, Flatiron

Zar Property NY through the entity East 18th Street LLC as borrower signed a loan with lender JPMorgan Chase valued at $36 million for two recently purchased office properties including the office building (O6) at 119 West 57th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan and office building (O6) at 37 East 18th Street in Flatiron District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on November 25, 2024 and was recorded on December 13, 2024. The two properties have 179,198 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $200 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 Zar Property NY was Esshagh D. Zar.
Zar Property NY paid $27 million for 119 West 57th Street in November 2024, and $27 million for 37 East 18th Street in August 2024.

Zar Property NY is a family-owned firm that concentrates on office and retail properties, led by principals Dario Zar, David Zar, Simon Zar, Jonathan Zar and Julian Zar.

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 $3,900 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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 27.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 36 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 119 West 57th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 13 commercial properties representing 414,674 square feet of the 608,474 square feet. The largest owner is Zar Property NY, followed by ABR Investment Partners and then S.W. Management.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 1,555,607 square feet. The largest is a 1,502,992 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Alchemy Properties and filed by Kenneth Horn with plans filed November 13, 2019 and permitted September 14, 2022. The second largest is a 41-unit, 52,615 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Extell Development and filed by Michael Loeb with plans filed November 12, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 608,474 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Zar Property NY owned at least nine commercial properties with 46 residential units in New York City with 542,221 square feet and a city-determined market value of $157.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 94 percent of the 542,221 square feet of built space are office properties, with walkup properties next occupying 6 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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