Queens firm Excel pays $25M to Catholic Charities for dev site in Hell’s Kitchen

The Queens-based firm headed by Mikhael Heletz, Excel Development Group, through the entity 539 West 54th Street LLC paid $25 million to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York for the development site at 539 West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

At the same time, Excel Development Group through the entity 539 West 54th Street LLC as borrower signed an acquisition loan with lender Bank Leumi.

The deal closed on December 28, 2021 and was recorded on January 18, 2022.
The property has 30,210 square feet of built space and 45,312 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 75,563 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $827 and the price per buildable square foot is $330 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 Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York was Kevin Sullivan. The signatory for Excel Development Group was Mikhael Heletz.
Prior to this transaction, the buyer Excel Development Group had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the past 24 months.

There has been one demolition project filed for the parcels over the past five years.
Excel also has a project in the works on East 33rd Street in Kips Bay.

In Hell’s Kitchen, the majority, or 39 percent of the 45 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 3.5 times the average sales volume in the city with $972.1 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 1.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.2 million square feet of commercial construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
On the tax block, the majority, or 90 percent of the 972,649 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.
Within a 400-foot radius of 539 West 54th Street, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
It was a loan which Two Trees Management borrowed $190 million from Wells Fargo and New York State Housing Finance Agency secured by four condo units in the 914-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 770 11th Avenue on February 19, 2020.

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