One of Midtown’s most stubborn problem towers just got a serious bailout. Yellowstone Real Estate has landed a $480 million construction loan to convert the former MONY building at 1740 Broadway into a 422-unit mixed-use property, clearing a critical hurdle for a long-troubled address that has been stuck in limbo for years.
The fresh capital puts the project on firmer ground for construction and marketing, with developers planning a heavy amenity package wrapped around luxury condominium and rental offerings.
Madison Realty Capital is providing the construction financing, arranged by Ackman-Ziff principals Jason Krane, Simon Ziff and Russell Schildkraut. Isaac Hera announced the financing on LinkedIn, and Yellowstone said Reuveni will handle sales and marketing of the homes, according to The Real Deal.
Yellowstone stepped into the picture in April 2024, buying the building’s defaulted CMBS loan for just under $200 million after Blackstone handed back the keys in 2022. The note purchase and the property’s distressed backstory were detailed by Commercial Observer, which highlighted the deal as a classic opportunistic trade on a troubled Midtown asset.
What the Conversion Will Include
Plans call for 422 residential units inside the roughly 600,000-square-foot tower, split between 182 luxury condominiums and 238 rental apartments, and supported by more than 60,000 square feet of resident amenities.
The program, as outlined by The Real Deal, reads more like a resort brochure than a typical Midtown office conversion: a 22,000-square-foot sports club, a resort-style spa with a 60-foot lap pool, an entertainment lounge featuring a bowling alley and golf simulator, pet facilities with an indoor dog run and grooming center, a porte-cochère, and a residents’ lounge anchored by a 950-square-foot lounge pool.
Where This Fits In New York’s Conversion Wave
The 1740 Broadway deal is the latest in a string of big adaptive-reuse plays for Yellowstone. Earlier this year, the firm secured roughly $203 million in financing for a Times Square office-to-residential conversion, as reported by GlobeSt. It also landed a $326 million construction loan from Barings to convert the Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, according to Bisnow, underscoring how investors are increasingly steering capital into Manhattan conversions instead of traditional office bets.
With construction financing now locked in at 1740 Broadway, Yellowstone can move forward on design, permitting and marketing. The developer has not yet released a construction schedule or sales timeline, so neighbors and would-be buyers will be watching permits and early site activity for clues about when the former insurance tower will actually turn into a place to live. For now, the $480 million loan puts the MONY building’s makeover among the largest adaptive-reuse financings announced in New York City this year.
