Chetrit Group plans 53-unit building in Lenox Hill

Kevin K. Kim, executive vice president of Chetrit Group submitted a new building construction project for a 53-unit, 166,764 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 260 East 72nd Street at the corner of Second Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on November 2, 2022 under job number M00785688. It calls for the construction of a 20-story building. The project is described in the filing as: Construct new 20-story mixed-use building as per plans filed herewith. The architect is C3d Architecture PLLC.

The property

The 1363 Second Avenue parcel is composed of four tax lots 25, 27, 120 and 121 and has frontage of 102 feet with a total lot size of 13,895 square feet. The zoning is R10A which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The most recent loan totaled $80 million and was provided by G4 Capital Partners on December 22, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $27,500 in ECB penalties, two housing violations, and $27,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

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

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 51.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 13 commercial properties representing 173,816 square feet of the 734,228 square feet. The largest owner is Charles Alpert, followed by Premier Equities and then the Chetrit Group. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 170,825 square feet. The largest is a 166,764 square-foot R-2 building developed by Kevin K. Kim with plans filed November 2, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 4,061 square-foot R-2 building developed by Kevin K. Kim with plans filed November 2, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Chetrit Group owned at least 35 commercial properties in New York City with 4,630,779 square feet and a city-determined market value of $798.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.7 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Bank of Montreal, Starwood Mortgage Capital, and Starwood Capital Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 4,630,779 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 27 percent of the space. The bulk, or 69 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 26 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Meyer Chetrit, head officer and Jo Chetrit, officer. The business entities are Plaza Management and Cf East 72 Owner Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1363 2 Avenue, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on January 24, 2022 for a 120,449-square-foot R-2 building with 134 residential units at 242 East 71st Street. Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $102.9 million. The most recent of the three was 230 East 73rd Cooperative which borrowed $85 million from First Republic Bank secured by the 89,281-square-foot, 92-unit co-op (D4) on 230 East 73rd Street on May 25, 2022.

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