Rabsky lands $450M loan for DoBro towers

Debt from Madison Realty Capital will allow completion of 35-story, 1,098-unit mixed-use project

Madison Realty Capital's Josh Zegen and 625 Fulton Street in Brooklyn (MRC, Google Maps)
Madison Realty Capital's Josh Zegen and 625 Fulton Street in Brooklyn (MRC, Google Maps)

Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group and Joel Gluck’s Spencer Equity landed a major construction loan to finish building their massive mixed-use project in Downtown Brooklyn.

The Rabsky-led venture scored $450 million in debt from Madison Realty Capital for the development, which will stand 35 stories tall with 1,098 residential units across two connected towers, plus retail space.

Excavation work on the site began four months ago, according to the Commercial Observer.

Current plans call for 342 studio apartments, 492 one-bedroom rental units and 264 two-bedroom units, the publication reported. Thirty percent of units will be reserved as affordable through the 421a affordable housing program, in addition to others designated affordable through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program.

Additionally, there will be 26,000 square feet of retail space on Fulton Street, 250 parking spots and 150 storage units.

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Forest City Enterprises sold the development site to Rabsky for $158 million in 2015, after 26 years of ownership. The sale came two years after Forest City demolished a 359,000-square-foot office building on the property.

Rabsky bought a neighboring property for $68 million in 2017, expanding the assemblage to make the two-tower project a possibility. The developer had originally envisioned a 942-foot-building with 902 apartments, office space and a 640-seat public elementary school in 2018, when earlier plans were revealed.

In March 2019, Rabsky received an extension through July of this year on a pair of past-due loans on the project worth $100 million.

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[CO] — Holden Walter-Warner