The Safra family has taken on full ownership of two mixed-used properties on Madison Avenue for a combined price of roughly $95.3 million from entities tied to Ralph Sitt’s Status Capital.
Through two limited liability companies, the family paid about $75.7 million to own 711 Madison Avenue, according to property records filed Thursday with the city’s Department of Finance.
Luxury fashion retailer Roberto Cavalli once took up the ground floor at the five-story 711 Madison, a 10,000-square-foot building that sits on the corner of 63rd Street, a block from Central Park. It has since closed.
Safra also picked up a minority stake — 28 percent — in the six-story building two doors down, 715 Madison Avenue, for about $19.6 million. A venture between Status Capital and one of Safra’s affiliates, JSRE Acquisitions LLC, had bought the 9,300-square-foot building in 2017 for $61.5 million, with Status owning that minority interest and JSRE the rest, property records show.
CBRE’s Richard Hodos is marketing the retail space at 715 Madison Avenue, which used to be a Moga store. The space, which has since been renovated, has been vacant for about two years.
Sitt declined to comment and the family’s banking arm didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. Ashkenazy Acquisitions, a partner in the venture that owned 711 Madison, also did not immediately return a request for comment.
Ashkenazy and Sitt, via 711 Madison Partners LLC, acquired that property in 2014 for about $46.9 million, it was reported at the time. But the Safra family was also involved in the deal, public records show. An assumption of mortgage record from 2014 shows that Sitt’s family firm, Sitt Asset Management, Ashkenazy and JSRE Acquisitions LLC were borrowers on the property, and the family’s bank provided $38 million in financing for the deal.
Sitt Asset Management was embroiled in legal issues when Sitt’s brothers, Eddie and Jack Sitt, in 2014 and 2015 filed separate complaints against Ralph Sitt and their brother, David Sitt, over the management of the family’s real estate assets, including their flagship property 2 Herald Square. Eddie Sitt’s complaint makes mention of 711 Madison as a property Ralph Sitt acquired with Safra.
In 2018, Eddie Sitt settled with his brothers. The other case remains active.