Avdoo & Partners inks contract for potential dev site in Hudson Square: city records
185 Varick Street (Credit - Google)
UPDATED 10:45 a.m., March 25, 2025: Avdoo & Partners Development through the entity 68 King Street Owner LLC signed a contract as buyer with Benjamin Webster Federbush through the entity 185 Varick Realty Corp. as seller for the office building (O5) at 185 Varick Street in Hudson Square, Manhattan. The expected use is development. The contract was disclosed yesterday in a memorandum of contract filed in city property records. The filing did not disclose a price or deposit amount.
Avdoo & Partners is an active developer in New York City.
• Avdoo & Partners pays $52M to Gatsby Enterprises for dev site in Lenox Hill (February 11, 2025)
• Avdoo & Partners pays $29.4M for dev site in Gowanus (December 30, 2024)
• Avdoo & Partners signs contract with S.J. Fuel Co. to buy dev site in Gowanus (November 03, 2023)
The memorandum was signed on March 21, 2025 and was recorded on March 24, 2025. The property has 68,476 square feet of built space and 57,410 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 125,900 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
The property could sell for $400 per foot, or about $50 million, according to some insiders.
The signatory for Benjamin Webster Federbush was Benjamin Webster Federbush. The signatory for Avdoo & Partners Development was Shlomo Avdoo . The contract date was March 21, 2025.
The Commercial Observer reported in 2023 the property could sell as a “covered land deal,” meaning the property could generate income but would ultimately be used for a redevelopment or ground up development.
In the memorandum of contract filed with the city, the document said, “The Agreement contemplates that the conveyance of Seller’s fee interest in the Property will occur on the date which is one hundred eighty (180) days after the date of Seller’s delivery to Purchaser of the Closing Notice (as defined in the Agreement).”
The last loan was First Republic Bank providing a $15 million loan in May 2015, which was assigned to JPMorgan Chase in June 2024 after the First Republic was shuttered. The Federbush family has owned the building since at least 1966.
A team lead by Avison Young Principal and Head of NYC Investment Sales, Brandon Polakoff, was the broker on the transaction.
Prior sales and revenue
Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Avdoo & Partners Development purchased 12 properties in five transactions for a total of $101.5 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Benjamin Webster Federbush had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 68,476-square-foot property generated revenue of $5 million or $73 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
The property
The office building in Hudson Square has 68,476 square feet of built space and 57,410 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 125,900 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 76 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,590 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $19.5 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 September 20, 2017. 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 Hudson Square, The majority, or 76 percent of the 11.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Hudson Square has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $90.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Hudson Square has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had -5,894,871 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents -49.72 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the eight commercial properties representing 667,801 square feet of the 1,047,124 square feet. The largest owner is Valentina Gilmore, followed by Tishman Speyer and then Storagemart.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 183,395 square feet. It is a 165-unit, 183,395 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Toll Brothers and filed by Joseph Clark with plans filed March 28, 2017 and permitted March 21, 2018.
The majority, or 53 percent of the 1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.
UPDATED with broker information.
Direct link to Acris document. link