Make New York Post a Preferred Source New Yorkers know Zabar’s for its smoked salmon, bagels and signature orange-and-white shopping bags — but the family behind the beloved Upper West Side grocery store has another business hiding in plain sight: Manhattan real estate.
Beyond its famous Broadway storefront, the Zabar family has ties to at least six residential buildings containing a combined 80 apartments, along with a stake in a commercial property that once generated nearly $5 million in annual rent.
The little-known property holdings span several corporate entities and stretch beyond the family’s longtime home turf on the Upper West Side.
And the man who helped build that portfolio was Stanley Zabar, the grocery chain’s longtime co-owner and financial mastermind, who died Monday at age 94.
While his older brother Saul, who died last year at 97, became the public face of the family business, Stanley handled its financial and legal affairs — helping transform a modest smoked-fish counter founded by their parents in 1934 into a New York institution.
As the grocery business flourished, Stanley parlayed its growing sales into a series of real estate deals that expanded the original storefront to more than half a city block, according to his family’s obituary.
But the family’s property interests extended well beyond the grocery aisles.
City housing registration records connect Stanley to six Manhattan residential buildings through four corporate entities, according to an analysis of Department of Housing Preservation and Development data.
Three of those buildings — 2270, 2272 and 2274 Broadway — are associated with 2285 Realty Associates LLC and contain a combined 38 apartments.
The properties sit just blocks from the family’s flagship grocery store at 2245 Broadway.
Another building at 2276 Broadway, linked to Orock Realty & Construction Corp., contains 16 apartments.
The family’s reported residential footprint also extends to 2708 Broadway, which contains 16 apartments, and 1319 First Ave. on the Upper East Side, which has another 10.
Together, the six buildings account for 80 residential units, forming part of a broader family-linked real estate portfolio valued at nearly $30 million, according to property data firm PincusCo.
The Zabars also became involved in a major commercial real estate partnership just steps from their flagship store.
In 1979, Stanley and Saul, together with longtime grocery business partner Murray Klein, entered into a joint venture with the Friedland family involving property at 2231 Broadway and adjoining real estate.
The Zabar-Klein side held a 50% interest in the partnership, according to court documents.
By 2019, the property was generating nearly $5 million in annual gross rental income, according to figures cited in litigation between the partners.
But the decades-long relationship eventually soured.
In a lawsuit filed in 2022, the Zabar side accused the Friedlands of allowing valuable commercial space to sit vacant as they pursued plans to redevelop the property into a mixed-use residential tower.
The Friedland side disputed the allegations, and the case resulted in an April 2025 court decision addressing the parties’ competing claims.
The dispute offered a rare glimpse into the real estate dealings of a family better known for selling gourmet groceries than managing Manhattan properties.
The family’s holdings are distinct from the separate Upper East Side food and real estate businesses built by Stanley and Saul’s younger brother, Eli Zabar.
With Stanley’s death following Saul’s last year, the property interests represent another part of the brothers’ legacy — one that extends far beyond the grocery store that made their name synonymous with the Upper West Side.
As friends and colleagues remembered Stanley’s lasting impact on New York, the family’s real estate holdings offer another glimpse into the business acumen behind one of the city’s most enduring institutions.
