“Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.” - E.B. White, Here is New York 🗽

Little is known about Zohar Levy save for his penchant for big deals. The Israeli entrepreneur took control of Summit Properties in the early aughts, recapping the firm w/ insurance & other institutional money. He then went on a property-shopping spree in Germany, before coming to these shores in the early days of the pandemic. Today, Summit’s 🗽 portfolio spans 2.5M+ sf of resi, 500+ hotel 🔑 as well as the leasehold on the formerly distressed 444 Madison ($84/ 👣 👏 ). Real Gs…lasagna

That relative obscurity is almost certainly coming to an end. Because Summit has now made a stalking-horse bid for what will likely be the most-scrutinized deal in New York this year: control of a distressed 5,100-unit NYC portfolio of largely rent-stabilized buildings. This is the spread that Pinnacle’s Joel Wiener threw into bankruptcy last year, after defaulting on $550M+ in debt from Flagstar (the artist fka NYCB).

Taking control of the Pinnacle portfolio would instantly propel Levy into the ranks of New York’s largest rental landlords. But in making this move, Levy’s putting himself in the firing line: NYC rent-stabilized is arguably the country’s most politically radioactive and financially uncertain asset class – and that was even prior to the Mamdani administration coming into power. Every move (and misstep) in this space is chronicled by a gung-ho media, and Mamdani’s intent to police proceedings adds a further wildcard.

Even at just $88,000 a door, is that a risk worth taking? 👇

A 🖋 from Pensford’s JP Conklin: In ‘15 and again in ‘20, I wrote about one of the most confusing anomalies in finance: negative swap spreads. Those notes became some of our most-read emails. Why? Because negative swap spreads shouldn't exist. In a rational world, the US Government is risk-free, and banks are not. So a bank attempting to swap a floating rate for a fixed rate should pay a premium over Treasurys. Even if the US Government isn’t entirely risk-free, it’s hard to argue the people with the printing press are riskier than the banks they’ve bailed out. Banks should trade at a premium to the government.

But for the last decade, that explanation broke down. In ‘25, 5-year swap spreads got as low as -45bps. As we kick off ‘26, they’re sitting around -25bps. Why does this matter to CRE players? Read on.

A marquee financing that could open the agency floodgates: Carlyle 🥋 and its on-the-ground partner Greenbrook (Greg Fournier, Fred LeCao) landed a $486M refi (h/t PincusCo) on their empire of NYC ( 🦁’ s share in Brooklyn) walk-ups. The debt (basis $450K / 🚪 ) comes c/o Freddie (W&D originated) and retires ‘22 financing from Invesco. Notable b/c Freddie’s doesn’t generally 💃 w/ such properties, many of which have <6 units & would historically be banked by “dese & dose guys” at Signature 💀 , NYCB/Flagstar etc. (Freddie debt comes w/ stricter DD, particularly wrt things like violations, so getting its stamp is prob a good thing for tenants.) We’re fuzzy on whether Carlyle/Greenbrook tapped an existing Freddie product for this financing, or if it figured out something more bespoke; Fournier declined to comment. When the JV started discussions for fresh debt this past summer, it was talking a debt yield of 8%.

We at The Promote are obsessed w/ attempts to institutionalize formerly mom-n-pop domains (see our pod on “exotic alts” here & manufactured homes here), esp. in politically charged spaces like NYC housing, and Carlyle (Wonjoong Kim running point) + Greenbrook have def taken some heat on the journey. The 260+ townhome-style properties contain ≈ 1,100 primarily market-rate units, falling under the property-tax capped 2A/2B designation. Carlyle/Greenbrook had to amass the portfolio nibble by nibble, though it could sometimes bite off bigger chunks from 2A/2B roll-up pioneers like Drew Popkin’s Highpoint 🦡 One key gatekeeper on many of the JV’s buys, per sources, was Brown Harris Stevens’ Ari Harkov (here he is on a quintessentially Marcus & Millichap pod). A fraction of these deals were former rent-stabilized properties brought to market-rate via the now-scrutinized sub-rehab playbook.

Separately: Carlyle is also buying up meatier multi properties x Brooklyn in partnership w/ Z+G Property Group; as we first reported Friday, that JV just closed on a $100M+ buy in Gowanus.

CRE is a “I know a guy” business, and for many years, Mark Nussbaum was the guy to know for frum players. He was a connector, a facilitator, someone who’d find you a partner, or maybe just help you temporarily pad your bank account to pass muster w/ lenders. He made a killing for himself in the process, until it all came to a screeching halt. Now, he’s at the center of what’s shaping up to be the biggest escrow scandal in the recent history of New York. Our snapshot of his wild ride is now live on YouTube. We’ll be doing more of these videos on projects & players x the country, so ✏ w/ suggestions.

This is going to be a spicy quarter in healthcare CRE, an opaque corner of the industry w/ quite the cast of characters and storylines. Some things we’re tracking:

The Promote will be at CREFC: Please invite us to all your stuff. We’re a good hang and happy to keep things off-record. 🌴 🦈