Columbia University pays $25.7M to Mark Hersh for former SRO in Morningside Heights
Columbia University paid $25.7 million to Mark Hersh through the entity 611 W. 112th St. Realty Corp. for the former single-room occupancy hotel building at 611 West 112th Street in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 7, 2022 and was recorded on February 24, 2022.
The property has 36,580 square feet of built space and 16,602 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 53,162 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $702 and the price per buildable square foot is $483 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 Mark Hersh was Mark Hersh. The signatory for Columbia University was Sharon Colburn.
Prior to this transaction, the buyer Columbia University purchased 24 properties in three transactions for a total of $87 million and had not sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Mark Hersh had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.
Over the past five years, there has been one NYC Department of Buildings permit application filed for this parcel valued at more than $20,000. Of those there was one major renovation application including a certificate of occupancy change (A1) filed with a total estimated value of $1.7 million. One of the projects were to change the building from a RES to a R-2 and change the number of residential units from 136 to 102.
Mark Hersh has been the owner of the building since 1984, described in 2006 as a 135-unit single-room occupancy apartment building. The city in 2005 determined that between 1999 and 2002 he harassed, as a matter of law, tenants and therefore was not entitled to a certificate of no harassment, which he sought in 2002.
In Morningside Heights, the majority, or 60 percent of the 37.8 million square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space. In sales, Morningside Heights has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $164.9 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Morningside Heights has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 439,613 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
On the tax block, the majority, or 79 percent of the 1.1 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 10 percent of the space.
The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development was Mark Hersh, head officer. The business entity was 611 W 112th St Realty Corp.
Within a 400-foot radius of 611 West 112th Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were one permit applications with a total initial cost of $250,000 and one permit with a total initial cost of $300,000. The most recent of these two items was the filing on October 7, 2021 for a 11,497-square-foot J-2 building with five residential units at 625 West 113th Street.
One of those four items was a sale which Angelo Gordon bought the 24,400-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (K4) on 2871 Broadway for $35 million from Longfellow Properties on November 15, 2021.
One of those four items was a loan which Angelo Gordon borrowed $35 million from Ladder Capital secured by the 24,400-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (K4) on 2871 Broadway on November 15, 2021.
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