Zar family secures $100M refi on Soho office, retail properties

Soho retail availability tightest since 2015 as rents tick up

42 Greene Street with Zar Property NY's David Zar (top) and Dario Zar  (Commercial Cafe, Getty)
42 Greene Street with Zar Property NY's David Zar (top) and Dario Zar  (Commercial Cafe, Getty)

As retail leasing heats up in Soho, the Zar family secured $100 million to refinance a pair of commercial assets in the trendy downtown neighborhood.

Safra National Bank provided the financing to Zar Property NY on 42 Greene Street and 90 Grand Street, records filed Thursday show. The debt replaces a $70 million mortgage provided by Safra in 2014.

Representatives for Safra and Zar could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub at Newmark arranged the financing.

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The Zar family’s company bought out its partner in the properties, the Nassimi family, in a series of transactions in 2017 that valued the buildings at $125 million.

Tenants at the properties, both of which include multiple stories of office space in addition to ground-floor retail, include the Swedish outdoor brand Fjällräven, the lighting company Artemide and the freelancing platform Fiverr.

Retail asking rents in Soho averaged $310 a square foot in the second quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield, up roughly 13 percent from $274 in the same period a year earlier — the largest annual jump of the dozen Manhattan shopping districts the brokerage tracks.

Retail availability in the neighborhood, meanwhile, was down to roughly 18 percent, the lowest it’s been since the second quarter of 2015.