Anbau, Inc. pays $15.5M to Arun Bhatia for development in Flatiron District

Anbau, Inc. through the entity 10 West 17th Street Fee LLC paid $15.5 million to Arun Bhatia Development Organization through the entity 10 W. 17th Property LLC for the development parcel (V1) at 10 West 17th Street in the Flatiron District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on December 16, 2022 and was recorded on December 23, 2022. The property has zero square feet of built space and 41,400 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 41,400 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $374 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 July 16, 2015, for $28.2 million. The signatory for Arun Bhatia Development Organization and Bhatia Development was Arun Bhatia. The signatory for Anbau, Inc. was Alexander H. Glascock. Arun Bhatia Development Organization

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Anbau, Inc. had purchased any other properties and sold four properties in two transactions for a total of $53.5 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Arun Bhatia Development Organization had not purchased any other properties and sold one property over the same time period at 326 East 15th Street for $124.5 million.

The property

The 10 West 17th Street parcel has frontage of 45 feet and is 92 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,140 square feet. The zoning is C6-4A which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.4 million.The most recent loan totaled $11.3 million and was provided by Union Labor Life Insurance Company on November 12, 2020.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 20-unit, 39,817 square-foot R-2 building. The project was developed by Arun Bhatia with plans filed September 30, 2014.

The neighborhood

In Flatiron District, the majority, or 72 percent of the 23.7 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has the 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Flatiron District has 1.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 12 of the 29 commercial properties representing 467,824 square feet of the 1,123,792 square feet. The largest owner is Winter Equities, followed by Thomas Vogel and then Superior Management.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 39,817 square feet. It is a 20-unit, 39,817-square-foot R-2 building developed by Arun Bhatia with plans filed September 30, 2014.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 976,921 square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Anbau, Inc. owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 164,773 square feet and a city-determined market value of $23.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $144 million in debt, borrowed from First Republic Bank and Bank OZK. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 84 percent of the 164,773 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 16 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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