ACRES Capital acquires Waterfall Mansion in Carnegie Hill through $34.4M deed-in-lieu

Lender ACRES Capital through the entity 170 East 80th Street Holdings LLC acquired from Kate Junghee Shin through the entity 170 East 80th Street Mansion LLC the retail building (K2) at 170 East 80th Street in Carnegie Hill, Manhattan, with a transfer value of $34.4 million. The transfer was a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, after Kate Shin defaulted on the loan from ACRES Capital secured by the building, known as the Waterfall Mansion.
The transfer closed on January 18, 2024 and was recorded on January 23, 2024. The property has 11,012 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $3,119 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The seller bought the property on January 30, 2008, for $8.5 million. The signatory for Kate Junghee Shin was Kate Junghee Shin. The signatory for ACRES Capital was Richard Persaud. The contract date was January 18, 2024. This is a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, with the owner Kate Shin turning the property, the Waterfall Mansion which houses and art gallery, over to the lender ACRES Capital.  ACRES Capital in 2018 provided a $23 million loan to Kate Shin, which it declared in default, and in 2021 filed a pre-foreclosure action, 850126/2021.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer ACRES Capital had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Kate Junghee Shin had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The retail building in Carnegie Hill has 11,012 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 22 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,248 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on November 20, 2023. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Carnegie Hill, The majority, or 56 percent of the 13.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Carnegie Hill has 2.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $879.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. For development, Carnegie Hill has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 794,045 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 15 commercial properties representing 132,915 square feet of the 215,862 square feet. The largest owner is Stahl Real Estate, followed by Simon Oren and then Robert F. Miller As Trustee Of Michael A Ladish Co Inc.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 113,453 square feet. It is a 33-unit, 113,453 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Legion Investment Group and filed by Victor Sigoura with plans filed April 24, 2019 and permitted February 5, 2020.

The majority, or 52 percent of the 215,862 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

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