Signature Bank’s fingerprints turn up across New York City’s real estate industry

BY C. J. HUGHES

With the shutdown of Signature Bank, the city may have lost one of its most dependable sources of funding for real estate deals.

Holding about $33 billion in outstanding mortgage loans at the end of last year, the majority of which were backed by buildings in New York, Signature poured into real estate with fervor in the years after opening its first office in 2001.

lished and bigger institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

Projects across the boroughs

And its financing powered projects across the boroughs, from boutique condos to modest walkup rentals and soaring office spires.

Clients included low-profile family-run firms as well as major developers who shaped New York’s skyline. And some presumably had give-and-take relationships with Signature, not only borrowing money but also keeping funds in the bank.

Indeed, though Signature may have been closely associated in recent months with cryptocurrency deposits, the Melville, Long Island-headquartered company has consistently been one of the city’s busiest real estate lenders, frequently winding up on “most active” lists alongside better-estab-

Signature does not appear to have originated much in the way of construction financing for new-development projects. But the company’s impact can still seem broad.

In December Sage Realty, which owns several large office buildings in Midtown, borrowed $155 million from Signature to refinance a loan behind 777 Third Ave., an office tower that it built in 1963. The loan included $15 million in gap financing. Sage, which was founded by the prolific Kaufman family, leases the land at No. 777 but owns its tower. A message left at Sage’s Manhattan office was not returned by press time.

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Signature also played a role in last summer’s acquisition by the

Kahen family of three side-by-side rental buildings on a different part of Third Avenue. The Kahens paid $34 million for the sites, between 1020 and 1026 Third Ave., near Bloomingdale’s. Signature chipped in $19 million. Majid Kahen had no comment.

The lender, which was founded in 1999, has also recently invested in portfolios controlled by landlords such as Mocal Enterprises, Delshah Capital and Briarwood Organization, according to public records. The bank was also a lender to Donald Trump, before he became president, and Ivanka Trump once sat on its board. ■