Christopher Skrelja pays $8M for 65-unit rental in Washington Heights

Christopher Skrelja through the entity Chittenhurst, LLC paid $8 million to the family of Bella Gordon Bankoff through the entity 186-196 Pinehurst Avenue Corporation for the 65-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 186-196 Pinehurst Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 26, 2024 and was recorded on March 28, 2024. The property has 65,352 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $122 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Bella Gordon Bankoff was Jay Gold. The signatory for Christopher Skrelja was Christopher Skrelja. The contract date was November 17, 2023. Bella Gordon Bankoff was a borrower in 1996. She was reported to have died in 2021 at the age of 102.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Christopher Skrelja had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Bella Gordon Bankoff had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Bella;Gordon Bankoff, head officer and Al Dizdari, officer. The business entities are Orsidny and 186-196 Pinehurst Ave Corporation.

The property

The residential elevator building with 65 residential units in Washington Heights has 65,352 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 151 feet and is 134 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,724 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.7 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations, $3,155 in ECB penalties, one housing violation, and $4,530 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 21 of the 38 commercial properties representing 1,146,291 square feet of the 1,664,139 square feet. The largest owner is Vincent Garrow, followed by Sugar Hill Capital Partners and then Shahram Mobasser.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 30,591 square feet. The largest is a 21-unit, 18,154 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Yisroel Eckstein with plans filed September 11, 2020 and permitted June 9, 2022. The second largest is a one-unit, 4,554 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Isaac Broyn with plans filed August 25, 2015 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 77 percent of the 1.7 million square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link