Bassalali family files to demo Midtown West building in footprint of Extell’s Fifth Ave tower

Adam Bassalali filed plans to demolish a 10-story Midtown West building at 15 West 46th Street, which has been owned by David Bassalali and Fatollah Hematian, according to a $5 million loan Safra National Bank provided in 2018. However, the building is in the footprint of Extell Development’s 574 Fifth Avenue project, filed this month for a 637,312-square-foot office and retail tower. It is likely the parcel has been or will be sold to Extell Development, though in some instances Extell signs ground leases with owners, such as the Feil Organization and Solil Management.

The demolition plan was filed under job number M01088612 for the 25,857-square-foot, 115-foot tall building.
The project was described as: full demolition of 10-story structure, using hand held and mechanical means within, and then full mechanical from grade. The Bassalali and the Hematian families are active in the diamond industry.

The property

The industrial building in Midtown West has 25,857 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. PincusCo cannot determine the lot area of the 17 West 46 Street parcel at this time. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.2 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 25,857-square-foot property generated revenue of $698,277 or $27 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $3,125 in ECB penalties, and $3,275 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 29.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 39 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 29 of the 41 commercial properties representing 1,034,134 square feet of the 1,198,913 square feet. The largest owner is Abc, followed by Extell Development and then Sjd, Llc. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 761,391 square feet. The largest is a 752,759 square-foot 56 building submitted by David Rothstein with plans filed September 6, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 4,790 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Roger Merriman with plans filed June 15, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.