David Shapiro of Grand & Co. pays $13.5M for 28-unit LES walkup, 2nd purchase last month

Florida investor David Shapiro who leads Williamsburg-based Grand & Co., through the entity Seventh 135 Eldridge St LLC, paid $13.5 million to R.A. Cohen & Associates through the entity Eldridge Associates LLC for the residential walkup building (C7) with 28 residential and two retail units at 135 Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.

David Shapiro closed on another purchase last month. He paid $9.2 million for the 17-unit Chelsea walkup at 410 West 22nd Street, as PincusCo first reported last week.
The deal closed on August 28, 2025 and has not yet been recorded. The property has 21,648 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $624 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 seller bought the property on September 23, 2014, for $11 million. The signatory for David Shapiro was attorney Socrates Xanthopoulos.

Traded NY reported on the sale previously but did not identify the buyer.

The property

The walkup building with 28 residential units in Lower East Side has 21,648 square feet of built space and 8,736 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,401 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,050 square feet. The zoning is C6-2A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million. The most recent recorded loan totaled $6.5 million and was provided by Dime Community Bank on March 5, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $11 million on September 23, 2014.

The 21,648-square-foot property generated revenue of $657,002 or $30 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received four housing violations and $500 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 Lower East Side, The majority, or 51 percent of the 23.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Lower East Side has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $500.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 21st highest in Manhattan. For development, Lower East Side has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. It had 646,289 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 four of the 13 commercial properties representing 50,594 square feet of the 134,573 square feet. The largest owner is George Lau, followed by Ida Tam and then R.A. Cohen & Associates. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that R.A. Cohen & Associates owned at least 15 commercial properties with 269 residential units in New York City with 220,475 square feet and a city-determined market value of $70.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $57.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as JPMorgan Chase, First National Bank of Long Island, and Dime Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 59 percent of the 220,475 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 37 percent of the space. The bulk, or 64 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 36 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Robert Cohen, head officer and Ralph Della Cava, officer. The business entities are RA Cohen & Associates, Inc. and Eldridge Associates Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 137 Eldridge Street, PincusCo identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those eight items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on April 14, 2025 for the $1.3 million renovation of 10,228-square-foot residential (R-2) building with eight residential units at 133 Eldridge Street. Of those eight items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $67.5 million. The most recent of the three was Hamilton Lane which bought the 28,112-square-foot, 33-unit rental (C7) on 55 Delancey Street and three other properties for $49.7 million from RWN Real Estate Partners on March 7, 2025. Of those eight items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $62.6 million. The most recent of the four was Gaia Real Estate in which borrowed $31.5 million from Rialto Management Group secured by the 15,038-square-foot, 18-unit rental (C7) on 99 Allen Street and three other properties on June 3, 2025.

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