Affiliate of WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum pays $39M to Paul Smith for retail in SoHo

An affiliate of WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum through the entity Greene Street LLC paid $39 million to Paul Smith through the entity Paul Smith Properties LLC for the retail building at 142 Greene Street in SoHo, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 20, 2022 and was recorded on February 1, 2022.
The property has 24,200 square feet of built space and 2,453 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 26,665 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,611 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,462 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 24, 2006, for $27.2 million. The contract date was December 1, 2021.
The signatory for Paul Smith was Richard Coopersmith. The signatory for Jan Koum was Audrey K. Scott.
Prior to this transaction, the buyer Jan Koum had not purchased any other properties in New York and had not sold any properties over the past 24 months.

There has been a burst of activity in Soho recently, including Greg Kraut’s KPG Funds and LaSalle Investment Management pays $84.5 million to Vornado Realty Trust for two properties in Soho. Soho recently was rezoned.

The 24,200-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.2 million or $92 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Over the past five years, there has been one NYC Department of Buildings permit application filed for this parcel valued at more than $20,000. One of the projects were to change the building from a RES to a COM and were permitted on September 5, 2006.
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum’s real estate company Immobiliare Management LLC is at the address and signatory Scott is the attorney for the foundation. The designer Paul Smith bought the building in 2006 for $27.25 million and occupied it as it’s Soho flagship.  The location now is permanently closed, according to the company website.   Scott is registered as an attorney for the Koum business Immobiliare Management LLC.

Koum paid $100 million for a Malibu mansion and and then in 2021 paid $87 million for another one next door.

In SoHo, the bulk, or 33 percent of the 13 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 26 percent of the space. In sales, SoHo has 2.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $637.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, SoHo has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 137,726 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
On the tax block, the majority, or 37 percent of the 330,990 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space.
The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development included Paul Smith, head officer and John Morley, officer. The business entities were Paul Smith Properties and Paul Smith Properties Llc.
Within a 400-foot radius of 142 Greene Street, Pincusco identified nine commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those nine items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $34.6 million. The most recent of the three was Barry, David B which bought one condo unit in the 4,179-square-foot, 24-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 583 Broadway for $10.4 million from Andre Balazs on June 2, 2021.
Of those nine items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $179.5 million. The most recent of the six was Premier Equities which borrowed $27.1 million from Signature Bank secured by the 24,300-square-foot, one-unit retail building (K1) on 134 Wooster Street and one other property on January 12, 2022.

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