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Development
New York

Rabsky Group signs $400M refi for Fort Greene project

Loan covers more than 1M sf in developable space

Apollo Management's Marc Rowan and Madison Realty's Josh Zegen with 625 Fulton Street
Apollo Management's Marc Rowan and Madison Realty's Josh Zegen with 625 Fulton Street (Getty, Google Maps)

Simon Dushinsky and Isaac Rabinowitz’s Rabsky Group has swapped lenders for a massive multifamily development in Fort Greene.

Apollo Global Management and Madison Realty Capital provided Rabsky with a $400 million loan on March 29 to continue the project at 625 Fulton Street. The loan replaces another $400 million construction loan that the Brooklyn developer had taken out from Madison Realty Capital in 2021.

A pair of 35-story glass-clad towers will rise at the site and will include 1,046 units, with more than 300 to be permanently designated for affordable housing.

The loan covers three properties on the block. Together, they offer 1.1 million square feet of buildable space, which means the loan breaks down to about $360 per built square foot, according to analysis by PincusCo.

A contact for Rabsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Simon Dushinsky and Isaac Rabinowitz are among the most prolific developers in Brooklyn, signing off on projects that account for nearly 2,000 units across the borough with another 400 in Queens. The pair have also played a major role in the transforming neighborhoods like Williamsburg. Despite their success, they remain virtual unknowns in the Manhattan real estate domain, escaping photographs and rarely speaking to the press.

Their firm hasn’t been without controversy. Rabsky’s proposed Broadway Triangle, a retired Pfizer site in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was in the thralls of an on-again off-again lawsuit for years. Activists claimed that minority residents in the surrounding area would get priced out of the 777-unit rental complex, though those allegations were ultimately dismissed in two separate courts in 2018 and 2020.

Apollo has also been involved in several other major projects across the city, including 25 Water Street and One57.

In 2020, Apollo took over development of a 51-story apartment tower at 565-589 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn when its original developers, RedSky Capital and JZ Capital, defaulted on their $156 million loan from the lender. 

The transfer came on the heels of a shocking devaluation of JZ Capital’s portfolio by more than $50 million in late 2019.

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