Rabsky Files Plans for 24-Story Tribeca Project

Simon Dushinsky is gearing up to fill in a pit.

The Rabsky Group filed plans for a 24-story, 106-unit project at 65 Franklin Street in Tribeca, Crain’s reported. The parcel on the corner of Franklin Street and Broadway is already excavated, but has sat empty and earned a rep as a neighborhood eyesore.

Dushinsky’s firm previously proposed a 20-story, 89-unit project on the site, alternately addressed as 360 Broadway. But Rabsky was able to increase the scope of the development thanks to the City of Yes zoning reforms.

Last summer, Rabsky locked down $320 million in construction financing for the ground-up project, obtaining the debt from G4 Capital Partners. The latest filing doesn’t indicate if Rabsky is building rentals or condominiums, but previous reporting points to the latter.

Dushinsky did not respond to the publication’s request for comment.

The assemblage was formerly in the hands of HAP Investments, the firm led by Eran Polack, which planned a 19-story, 41-unit condo on the site. HAP picked up the land in 2018 for $46 million and spent years considering a project that never got off the ground.

The firm sold 360 Broadway to Rabsky in March for $57.6 million, setting the stage for a reinvention of the site. Rabsky also bought the parcel next door in September for $47.5 million, as well as 25,000 square feet of air rights above 67 Franklin Street for $3.6 million.

The site has a sordid history of litigation. Charles Dayan’s Bonjour Capital controlled 59 Franklin Street through an LLC, which sued HAP Investments and Noble Construction Group, claiming negligent work at 65 Franklin Street destabilized the building. He was seeking at least $15 million.

Bonjour once filed plans to build an 18-story, 89,000-square-foot building with 89 luxury rentals at 59 Franklin.

Elsewhere in the city, Rabsky and Joel Gluck’s Spencer Equity Group recently took over the long-term ground lease at 356 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn from Gary Barnett’s Extell Development in a $39 million deal.

— Holden Walter-Warner