Queens landlord secures $47M to refi Macy’s Flushing site

The long-term owner of a large retail building in Flushing that’s ground-leased to Crown Acquisitions has scored a $47.5 million loan to refinance the property.

The loan — which comes from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company — includes a new $45 million gap mortgage and consolidates a $2.5 million loan issued by National Valley bank a decade ago, according to property records filed with the city Thursday.

The refinancing is for a 225,000-square foot building at 136-50 Roosevelt Avenue — which is currently leased to Macy’s — and a parcel nearby at 136-41st Avenue. Records show the properties are owned by Benider Co, an LLC registered to Robert Buxbaum, the director of business development at TDX construction company. It’s unclear what Buxbaum plans to do with the loan.

In January, Buxbaum struck a deal with Isaac Chera’s Crown Acquisitions, which signed a 99-year ground lease for the building at 136-50 Roosevelt Avenue. That deal was valued at $108.4 million, according to city records.

Chera told the Wall Street Journal that Macy’s lease is expiring soon, and he expects a future tenant to pay much more.

Flushing has seen record levels of development in the last few years, anchored by Onex Corp’s Sky View Parc complex . In August, Chinese developer Xinyuan Real Estate [TRDataCustom] paid $66 million to convert the historic RKO Theater into 269 condos priced between $1,150 and $1,300 a square foot. And last month, developer Andy Chau filed plans to bring a pair of mixed-use residential towers with 550,000 square feet of space to Flushing.

Buxbaum and representatives from Mutual Life Insurance could not be immediately reached for comment.