Douglaston Development acquires Carnegie Hill site, plans 478-foot tower with 72 units

Jeffrey Levine’s Douglaston Development acquired a 90-unit rental from a long-time owner through an undisclosed structure and plans to demolish a portion of the existing building at 1450 Third Avenue in Carnegie Hill, Manhattan, and construct a new 478-foot tall, 39-story tower with the address 175 East 82nd Street with 72 units.

The existing building spans the entire western block front of Third Avenue between 82nd and 83rd streets. Once the redevelopment and construction is complete, in total the project will have 172 units, or approximately 82 more units than the lot currently holds. Cetra Ruddy Architecture is the architect of record.

Douglaston Development acquired the property through the entity East 82 Owner LLC, which was formed in 2022. City property records do not reflect any change in ownership as of publication. A developer can buy or lease a property, and it’s unclear how the transfer was structured. Douglaston Development did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The long-time owner is Marjorie Nesbitt, borrowed $19 million in 2020 secured in part by 1450 Third Avenue. Nesbitt is no stranger to ground leases. She owns the fee under AvalonBay Communities 710-unit rental at 539 West 28th Street, which AvalonBay controls through a ground lease.

Douglaston Development is one of the city’s largest new construction development firms, having built thousands of units since Levine launched the firm in 1979.

The tower project, through job number M00995463, calls for retail on the ground floor, parking on the second floor and between one and four residential apartments on floors three through 36, excluding floors 21 and 22 which call for a swimming pool, media room, sauna, terrace, fitness room, kids room and yoga studio. Floor 20 holds mostly mechanical equipment. The plan was filed February 26, 2024.

Schedule of Occupancy for 175 East 82nd Street

In the conversion project, Steven Charno of Douglaston Development submitted a major alteration application for a change to the 90-unit residential building at 170 East 83rd Street in Carnegie Hill, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on October 19, 2023, under job number M00886510. It calls for a renovation of the six-story building. The project is described in the filing as: herewith filing Alt-CO application for partial demolition of southern half of building, egress revisions in the cellar, and reduction of existing dwelling units for existing building to remain as per plans.

The local news publisher Patch reported in June 2023 that the Gristedes grocery store located at 1450 Third Avenue would close that month.

The property

The existing building with 90 residential units in Carnegie Hill has 147,534 square feet of built space and 109,952 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 257,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 204 feet and is 149 feet deep with a total lot size of 25,750 square feet. The lot is irregular. 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 $29.1 million. The most recent loan totaled $19 million and was provided by BankUnited on March 25, 2020.

Prior sales and revenue

The 147,534-square-foot property generated revenue of $5 million or $34 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Carnegie Hill, The majority, or 56 percent of the 13.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Carnegie Hill has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $921 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Carnegie Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. It had 686,196 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 six of the 14 commercial properties representing 239,050 square feet of the 331,112 square feet. The largest owner is Abro Management, followed by Bldg Management and then Kenneth Ma. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 253,518 square feet. The largest is a 72-unit, 245,337 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Douglaston Development and filed by Steven Charno with plans filed February 26, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a one-unit, 8,181 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Adam Sanders with plans filed July 15, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Marjorie E. Nesbitt owned at least one commercial property with 89 residential units in New York City with 147,534 square feet and a city-determined market value of $29.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $19 million in debt, borrowed from BankUnited. The portfolio consists of at least a single elevator property. It is located in Manhattan.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Marjorie Nesbitt, head officer and Joseph Leone, officer. The business entity is 170 East 83rd Street, Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1460 3 Avenue, PincusCo identified 17 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 17 items, 13 were sales above $5 million totaling $225.7 million. The most recent of the 13 was Elie Fouerti which bought the 4,745-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (K2) on 1477 3rd Avenue for $8.8 million from Kano Real Estate Investors on January 2, 2024. Of those 17 items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $40.4 million. The most recent of the four was Aulder Capital in which borrowed $8.5 million from Principal Real Estate Investors secured by the 9,835-square-foot, 20-unit rental (C5) on 164 East 82nd Street and one other property on February 1, 2024.

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