Baron Property Group pays $15M to LargaVista for 86-unit dev site in Washington Heights

Baron Property Group through the entity 4560 Bwy Partners LLC paid $15 million to LargaVista Companies through the entity 4566 Broadway LLC for industrial building (G6) at 4560 Broadway in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on November 16, 2022 and was recorded on November 28, 2022. The property has zero square feet of built space and 53,148 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 53,148 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $282 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 LargaVista Companies was Marcello Porcelli. The signatory for Baron Property Group was Matthew Baron.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Baron Property Group had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller LargaVista Companies purchased 13 properties in four transactions for a total of $22.9 million and sold six properties in four transactions for a total of $34.4 million over the same time period.

The property

The 4560 Broadway parcel has frontage of 84 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,450 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $777,000.

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 are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 228,940 square feet. The largest is a new building project for a 171-unit, 156,345 square-foot R-2 building developed by LargaVista Companies with plans filed February 23, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a new building project for a 86-unit, 72,595 square-foot R-2 building developed by LargaVista Companies with plans filed December 28, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In Washington Heights, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 65.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space. In sales, Washington Heights has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $538.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 26th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has 1.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 21st highest in Manhattan. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 16 commercial properties representing 366,318 square feet of the 657,754 square feet. The largest owner is City of New York, followed by Scharfman Organization and then Aaron Jungreis.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 228,940 square feet. The largest is a 171-unit, 156,345-square-foot R-2 building developed by Marcello Porcelli with plans filed February 23, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.The second largest is a 86-unit, 72,595-square-foot R-2 building developed by Adam Good with plans filed December 28, 2020 and permitted April 26, 2022.

The majority, or 36 percent of the 657,754 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Largavista Companies owned at least 11 commercial properties in New York City with 29,417 square feet and a city-determined market value of $20.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 29,417 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with specialty properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. The bulk, or 67 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 17 percent of the space.

Correction: A prior version of this post had an incorrect image, showing a neighboring property not the parking lot-development site.

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