IDB Bank Provides $33M Refi for Former Macy’s Repositioning in Rockland County

A former Macy’s store in Rockland County is not fashionably late with its repositioning beyond retail.

Metropolitan Realty Associates (MRA) has sealed a $32.8 million loan to refinance the former department store property at 5101 Fashion Drive in Nanuet, N.Y., it acquired in 2018 for conversion to combined retail and self-storage use, Commercial Observer has learned. IDB Bank provided the loan, which replaced a $22.8 million supplied by Amherst Capital Management in early 201 for repositioning, as CO first reported at the time. 

“This refinancing validates the value we’ve created since acquiring the property,” Joseph A. Farkas, founder and CEO of MRA, said in a statement. “By reconfiguring the asset into multiple revenue streams and attracting strong national tenants, we’ve repositioned the property to perform in today’s retail environment.”

MRA acquired the 218,000-square-foot building in late 2018 for $11.2 million and reconfigured it from a single-tenant property into separate commercial condominium units. It recently inked a 10-year lease for a 35,500-square-foot Best Buy store and developed a free-standing Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen for the newly designed retail portion of the site, which has 60,000 square feet of additional ground-floor space available for rent 

The repurposed property known as RTL Nanuet also includes an 865-unit self-storage facility on the second floor operated by Storage King USA. The self-storage space is 90 percent occupied and is undergoing an expansion to meet growing demand in the region, according to MRA. 

IDB Bank did not immediately return a request for comment.

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.