Family behind designer Brandy Melville pays $33M for retail, mixed-use in SoHo: Sources

The Marsan family that owns the fashion brand Brandy Melville, through the entity Cemt Broadway, Inc., paid $33 million to the family of Angela Parisi through the entity the Mapama Corporation, for the retail and residential building (K4) at 545 Broadway in SoHo, Manhattan, according to sources familiar with the transaction.
The deal closed on January 17, 2024 and was recorded on January 24, 2024. The property has 29,586 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,115 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 Angela Parisi was Angela Parisi. The signatory for the Marsan family was Michelle Fontanez of Biz Advisory Group. The contract date was September 12, 2023. Francisco Fabiani and Michelle Fontanez of Biz Advistory Group have signed another CEMT properties together. The Brandy Melville company has offices in California and was started by Silvio Marsan in Italy.

Brandy Melville has more than 100 locations around the world, including two in New York City, at 519 Broadway, 61 Fifth Avenue.

This is another example of a user or its affiliated family office buying a retail location in New York City, with recent examples including Kering, Prada, Akris, Dyson and others.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer the Marsan family had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Angela Parisi had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The mixed-use building with 4 residential units in SoHo has 29,586 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,999 square feet. The property is in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9.7 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 one DOB violation and $3,150 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 neighborhood

In SoHo, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 9.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, SoHo has 2.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $758.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. For development, SoHo has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 137,660 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the eight commercial properties representing 526,548 square feet of the 599,722 square feet. The largest owner is Wharton Properties, followed by Scholastic and then Anette Marweld.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 78 percent of the 599,722 square feet of built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

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