Blackstone Group files $19M pre-foreclosure at Chelsea office building

The Blackstone Group through the entity SIG CRE 2023 Venture LLC filed a $19 million pre-foreclosure at the Chelsea office building at 151 West 25th Street. Berl Jacobowitz through the entity Royal Equities bought the building for $3.8 million in 1985, then in 2006 the name was changed to Royal Equities Operating LLC, which in February 2016 borrowed $19 million from Signature Bank.

The lender filed the complaint on September 6, 2024 in Manhattan State Supreme Court.

According to the complaint, “Borrower has failed to comply with the terms and provisions of the Note and Mortgage by failing to pay all amounts due at maturity on March 10, 2023 (the “Default Date”) which failure constitutes an Event of Default under the Note and Mortgage.”

Court LINK

Court records reflect the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

The property

The office building in Chelsea has 70,804 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 59 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,863 square feet. 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 $16.4 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 70,804-square-foot property generated revenue of $3.5 million or $50 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 five DOB violations and $3,300 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 Chelsea, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 20 commercial properties representing 1,010,933 square feet of the 1,633,093 square feet. The largest owner is Dong Yin Development (Holdings) Limited, followed by Flatiron Real Estate Advisors and then Icon Realty Management. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 26,543 square feet. It is a 13-unit, 26,543 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Vinbaytel Property Development and filed by Gary Vinbaytel with plans filed August 17, 2017 and permitted July 13, 2020.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 155 West 25 Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those four items was a sale which Edison Properties bought the 396,000-square-foot, one-unit office building (O3) on 119 West 24th Street and six other properties for $379.4 million from Edison Properties on August 4, 2023. Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $122.5 million. The most recent of the three was Elias Bochner in which borrowed $8.4 million from Lument secured by the 25,144-square-foot, 18-unit rental (D5) on 283 7th Avenue on August 12, 2024.

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