One stop from Midtown Manhattan on the E and M trains at Court Square, heavy-timber and concrete factory buildings with 14-foot ceilings and freight elevators have found a second life housing film production studios, robotics labs, and architectural workshops. Atlas Capital Group and GFP Real Estate teamed up to buy the 96,000-square-foot flex loft at 43-10 23rd Street for $33.6 million ($350 a square foot)—a 31.4 percent discount from its $49 million 2018 trade. When the deed closed on December 9, 2025, GFP Real Estate and Atlas Capital Group had officially taken down 43-10 23rd Street from Normandy / Columbia Property Trust Legacy Fund for $33.6 million, with Newmark brokering the trade.

Look past the headline figure and the story is all about the basis reset. The 96,000-square-foot building last traded in October 2018 for $49 million. Stepping in at $350 a square foot shaves 31.4 percent off that prior valuation, giving GFP Real Estate and Atlas Capital Group a margin of safety that would have been unthinkable at the top of the cycle. Even better for the buyers, the in-place rent roll hands them a verified 7.00 percent going-in cap rate from day one.

Rialto Backs the $350-a-Foot Court Square Reset

The real tell in any Queens closing sits on the debt side of the ledger. To fund the purchase, GFP Real Estate and Atlas Capital Group locked in a $21.84 million senior bridge & lease-up loan from Rialto Capital Management at 65 percent loan-to-value.

That loan commitment meant the buyers only needed to write a $11.76 million equity check to control a 6-story, 1928-vintage Long Island City (Court Square) asset. Credit committees aren't stretching to 75 percent leverage anymore, but when a sponsor brings $11.76 million of real cash equity and a basis of $350 a square foot, lenders like Rialto Capital Management are wide open for business.

From Our Desk

When we look at 43-10 23rd Street on our placement desk at Light Tower Group, the lesson for New York sponsors comes down to the marriage of entry basis and lender selection. GFP Real Estate and Atlas Capital Group didn't try to fight the tape—they bought Long Island City (Court Square) footage at $350 a square foot and paired it with the exact lender bucket built for this business plan. At $350 a foot steps from four subway lines in Court Square, Atlas and GFP own heavy-floor-load Queens footage for less than the land value alone—and Rialto's 65 percent loan gives them the runway to finish leasing the top two floors.