At the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 86th Street—directly above the 4, 5, and 6 express subway stop in Carnegie Hill—six ground-floor retail storefronts beneath nine free-market apartments generate some of the most durable cash flow uptown. On August 26, 2026, 1276 Lexington Owner LLC closed on the five-story, 16,295-square-foot corner building at 1276 Lexington Avenue for $12.6 million ($773 per square foot) from 1276 Lex Owner LLC. When the deed closed on August 26, 2026, 1276 Lexington Owner LLC had officially taken down 1276 Lexington Avenue from 1276 Lex Owner LLC for $12.6 million, with Upper East Side Capital Markets brokering the trade.

At $773 a square foot—or $840,000 a door across its 9 apartments— across 16,295 square feet, the trade establishes a clean clearing mark for Carnegie Hill / Upper East Side 5-story corner walk-up multifamily & retail building assets. Even better for the buyers, the in-place rent roll hands them a verified 6.00 percent going-in cap rate from day one.

A $9.75 Million CEMA Assignment Takes Leverage to 77.4 Percent

How you structure the debt on a Manhattan acquisition matters almost as much as what you pay for the deed. EMG Transfer Agent LLC stepped up with a $9.75 million senior loan—representing 77.4 percent loan-to-value—while the buyers wrote a $2.85 million equity check behind it.

Rather than extinguishing the seller's old note and originating a scratch mortgage, the buyers and EMG Transfer Agent LLC kept the existing mortgage wrapper alive through a Consolidation, Extension, and Modification Agreement, or CEMA. Because New York City levies a roughly 2.8 percent mortgage recording tax on new commercial debt, that single piece of legal plumbing saved the deal upwards of $0.27 million at the closing table—cash that stays in the property's capex and leasing reserve instead of going to the Department of Finance.

From Our Desk

When we look at 1276 Lexington Avenue on our placement desk at Light Tower Group, the lesson for New York sponsors comes down to the marriage of entry basis and capital structure. 1276 Lexington Owner LLC didn't try to fight the tape—they bought Carnegie Hill / Upper East Side footage at $773 a square foot and structured the stack to match the asset's timeline. Executing the $9.75 million senior note via an ACRIS AGMT consolidation through EMG Transfer Agent LLC allowed the buyer to reach 77.4 percent leverage on a prime 86th-and-Lexington subway corner while shielding the deal from New York's 2.8 percent mortgage recording tax.