AYA pays $45M to Carmel for 151-unit rental in Lenox Hill

AYA Acquisitions through the entity Aya Bsd Renoir LLC paid $45 million to buy a ground lease from Carmel Partners through the entity CP III Aj 63rd, LLC which controls the 151-unit residential elevator building (D6) at 225 East 63rd Street in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. The fee is owned by Sol Goldman Investments.
The deal closed on November 26, 2024 and was recorded on December 19, 2024. The property has 105,282 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $427 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 Carmel Partners was Matthew Golden. The signatory for AYA Acquisitions was Amir Shriki. This is the sale of a ground lease which Carmel Partners acquired in 2011 for $44.5 million, controlling the apartment building called the Renoir House. The ground lease was created in 1964 with the family of Sol Goldman as the current fee owner through the Greenpoint-Goldman Corp. The lease expires April 14, 2189.

Traded NY reported the brokers were Lipa Lieberman, Abie Kassin and David Schechtman of Meridian Capital Group and Ariel Tavivian of Douglas Elliman.

AYA financed the purchase with a $33.75 million loan from Derby Copeland Capital.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer AYA Acquisition purchased five properties in two transactions for a total of $51 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Carmel Partners had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Gabi Franco, head officer and Andrea Chowdhury, agent. The business entities are Grep Atlantic Llc and Cp Iii Aj 63rd Llc. The 105,282-square-foot property generated revenue of $6.1 million or $58 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The residential elevator building with 151 residential units in Lenox Hill has 105,282 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 125 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,552 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 $34.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $32.7 million and was provided by PCCP on July 7, 2023. The property has 20 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2023.

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 received three housing violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 18, 2016. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the seven commercial properties representing 362,747 square feet of the 1,309,468 square feet. The largest owner is Carlyle Property Management Group, followed by Carmel Partners and then City Of New York.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 68 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Carmel Partners owned at least nine commercial properties with 1,831 residential units in New York City with 119,311 square feet and a city-determined market value of $58.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $940.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 88 percent of the 119,311 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 7 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 3 percent of the space.

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