BLDG Management files to demolish 6 buildings in Murray Hill, no NB plan filed

Lloyd Goldman, president of BLDG Management submitted applications for the demolition of six buildings on four tax lots including 579, 581 and 583 Third Avenue and 211, 213 and 215 East 38th Street, in Murray Hill, Manhattan. The plans were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on January 26, 2023, under six job numbers including 123917716. BLDG has not filed a recent new building plan covering all the tax lots being demolished.

The rose colored parcels are subject to the demolition filing. BLDG also owns the parcel shaded in yellow, 205 East 38th Street, a 23,506-square foot parking garage.

BLDG submitted a new building plan in 2009 for a portion of this site, which is only the tax lot 1 with a lot area of 55 feet by 75 feet. The city did not issued a permit for that plan. A schematic view of it is visible below.

The property

The largest of the existing parcels set for demolition is, 579-583 Third Avenue, a walkup building with 24 residential units that has 17,659 square feet of built space and 24,195 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 41,860 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The property is owned by BLDG Management. The parcel has three buildings with frontage of 55 feet and is 75 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,186 square feet. The zoning is C1-9 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.8 million.

Development

John Smallwood of Bldg East 38 St LLC submitted a new building construction project for a 37-unit, 41,636 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 201 East 38 Street. The plan was filed on September 17, 2009. It calls for the construction of a 118-foot tall, 11-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 120157962. The project is described in the filing as: to erect an 11-story new building.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $37,500 in ECB penalties and $38,300 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 Murray Hill, The majority, or 57 percent of the 11.6 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Murray Hill has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th highest in Manhattan. For development, Murray Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 37th highest in Manhattan. It had 284,268 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 10 of the 22 commercial properties representing 269,560 square feet of the 1,187,761 square feet. The two identified owners are CBSK Ironstate and BLDG Management. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that BLDG Management owned at least 170 commercial properties with 3,885 residential units in New York City with 5,511,190 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.5 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 59 percent of the 5,511,190 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 11 percent of the space. The bulk, or 78 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 11 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Justin Alibayof, head officer and Besnick Ziba, site manager. The business entity is BLDG East 38 Street LLC.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 579 3 Avenue, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on June 15, 2022 for a 194,727-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 200 residential units at 567 3rd Avenue. Of those five items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $39.4 million. The most recent of the three was Lalezarian Properties which bought the 6,506-square-foot, nine-unit rental (C7) on 569 3rd Avenue for $7.8 million from BLDG Management on June 21, 2022. One of those five items was a loan which Murray Hill Mews Owners Cooperative borrowed $16.5 million from Berkadia Commercial Mortgage secured by the 329,706-square-foot, 272-unit co-op (D4) on 560 3rd Avenue on May 27, 2022.

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