$10.5M note sold secured by Bijan Nassi office building in Greenwich Village

The anonymous note buyer through the entity BD Notes LLC bought a note with an original principal of $10.5 million from Bank OZK secured by Bijan Nassi’s office building (O6) at 99 University Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on October 6, 2022 and was recorded on October 18, 2022. The prior lender was Bank OZK which held debt that had an original loan amount of $10.5 million. The property has 41,490 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data.

Prior sales and revenue

The 41,490-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.7 million or $65 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 99 University Place parcel has frontage of 49 feet and is 82 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,025 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C1-7 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $12.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $16,250 in ECB penalties and $20,250 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Greenwich Village, the bulk, or 24 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has the 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Greenwich Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 798,833 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 21 commercial properties representing 182,479 square feet of the 562,002 square feet. The largest owner is Taconic Partners, followed by Ariel Rom and then New York Police Department.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 30,000 square feet. It is a 40-unit, 30,000-square-foot R-2 building developed by Alexander Laszlo with plans filed December 28, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 83 percent of the 524,839 square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bijan Nassi owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 37,958 square feet and a city-determined market value of $12.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 89 percent of the 37,958 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 11 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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