Anonymous buyer acquires $57.3M PS 64 in Alphabet City out of bankruptcy

The anonymously owned entity 605 E 9th Community Holdings LLC acquired the long-vacant PS 64 school building at 350 East 10th Street in Alphabet City in a transaction valued at $57.3 million from the former owner, Gregg Singer, and his entity 9th & 10th Street L.L.C. Singer had filed to place the property in bankruptcy last year.
The new owner bought the debt on the property in October 2023.

The deal closed on January 4, 2024 and was recorded on January 9, 2024. The property has 93,420 square feet of built space and 17,161 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 110,720 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $613 and the price per buildable square foot is $517 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 signatory for Gregg Singer was Gregg Singer. The signatory for 605 E 9th Community Holdings LLC was attorney David Pfeffer. The contract date was December 7, 2023.

This was through a bankruptcy in the Southern District, index number 2023-10423. The deed is restricted allowing only community facility use. David Pfeffer is an attorney with Herrick Feinstein.
The brokerage firm Denham Wolf Real Estate Services released a statement which the Village Sun reported on, which said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous.

Another one-time anonymous buyer, later reported to be  hedge fund manager and philanthropist Aaron Sosnick who leads La Vida Feliz Foundation, purchased a former Boys & Girls Club building in the East Village for $31.7 million, and later sold it at a loss to the nonprofit Joyce Theater for $16 million.

The property

The specialty building in Alphabet City has 93,420 square feet of built space and 17,161 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 110,720 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 184 feet deep with a total lot size of 27,680 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in zero lawsuits and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The bankruptcy was filed on March 21, 2023, by Gregg Singer citing assets of $100 million. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received eight DOB violations, $3,750 in ECB penalties, and $13,200 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Alphabet City, The majority, or 56 percent of the 13 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Alphabet City has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $347.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 25th highest in Manhattan. For development, Alphabet City has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 122,657 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.95 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 24 commercial properties representing 179,678 square feet of the 423,453 square feet. The largest owner is Rivka Seltzer, followed by Phipps Houses and then Firebird Grove.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 9,087 square feet. It is a 10-unit, 9,087 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by John Scobie with plans filed April 17, 2020 and permitted May 11, 2022.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 423,453 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

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