A FOUNDATION IN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 
PROFITING FROM NON-PERFORMING INVESTMENTS 
STRENGTHS DIRECTED TO ASSET MANAGEMENT 
YOUNG MILLENNIUM, FRESH FRONTIERS

A foundation in property management. Mickey Rabina, the principal of Rabina Properties, began his real estate career in 1968 with the management of 85 Fourth Avenue in New York City, an apartment building owned by his family. The firm leveraged the hands-on operating experience it gained with this property to a series of Upper West Side apartment buildings with turbulent operating histories, acquired between 1979 and 1986. Purchased at deep discounts to their replacement costs, they helped build Rabina’s prowess in turning around troubled assets – properties suffering from operating violations, excessive vacancies, and below-market rent rolls in a rent-regulated environment. With intensive on-site management, Rabina Properties restored certificates of occupancy, improved tenant relations and renovated and subdivided apartments. As properties were improved, Rabina was able to remove apartments from the most restrictive New York rent regulations, and dramatically improve the cash flow they generated.

As the Upper West Side’s revitalization proceeded through the 1980s, Rabina Properties saw its assets appreciate more than tenfold in value as a percentage of equity, due to demand from co-op converters. Beginning in 1986, the firm sold approximately half of its residential portfolio, realized the appreciation in its investments and then, until 1992, sat out the overheated market’s inevitable downturn.  Next