Bizzi, Sumaida + Khurana, file plans for 164-unit project in Washington Heights at former bankrupt dev site

Nathan Shapiro of Bizzi & Partners Development through the entity Bennett Property Owner LLC submitted a new building construction project for Bizzi and development partner Sumaida + Khurana for a 164-unit project at 1 Bennett Park, also known as 524 Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on October 20, 2022 under job number M00775662. It calls for the construction of a 268-foot tall, 19-story building with apartments and a school.

Sumaida + Khurana and Bizzi & Partners bought the four parcels in January 2022 for a total of $12 million in two separate transactions. The former owner lost the property in a bankruptcy, Crain’s reported.

The property

The 1 Bennett Park parcel has a total lot size of 42,417 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.

Development

The architect for the 274,568-square-foot building is Marvel Architects. The structure will have 133,625 square feet of community space and 140,943 square feet for residential space, or an average of 859 square feet per apartment. The building will be on a footprint of 26,635 square feet.

The school is planned for the ground floor and floors three to six and eight to 10. Residential apartments are planned for floors five, six, eight and 11 through 22. A health club is planned for the fifth floor, and parking is planned for the building as well.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $8,650 in ECB penalties, and $8,650 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

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 near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $558.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 25th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.2 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 35 of the 81 commercial properties representing 1,492,704 square feet of the 3,570,601 square feet. The largest owner is Empire Management, followed by Madison International Realty and then Gatsby Enterprises. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 13,572 square feet. The largest is a 18-unit, 13,572 square-foot R-2 building developed by Levy Ryba with plans filed September 11, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 164-unit building developed by Nathan Shapiro with plans filed October 20, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bizzi & Partners Development owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 24,839 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 24,839 square feet of built space are M1 properties, with development properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1 Bennett Park, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those four items was a sale which Bizzi & Partners Development bought the 0-square-foot industrial (G7) on 35 Overlook Terrace and two other properties for $6 million from Amalgamated Bank on February 10, 2022. Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $29.1 million. The most recent of the three was R.A. Cohen & Associates which borrowed $11 million from JPMorgan Chase secured by the 81,909-square-foot, 79-unit rental (D6) on 56 Bennett Avenue on April 1, 2022.
Correction: In a prior version of this post, Sumaida + Khurana was not included as a co-developer, but in fact is. 

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