Former Kushner Times Square retail sells for $28.9M, was $295M in 2015

The entity Forum At Times Square, LLC in care of Berkowitz Pollack Brant, paid $28.9 million through a real estate owned (REO) transaction to Series 2016-CD2 and KeyBank for the retail condominium unit at the landmarked building at 229 West 43rd Street in Times Square, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on August 12, 2025 and was recorded on August 22, 2025. The property has 243,916 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $118 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 July 3, 2017, for $7.8 million. The signatory for Series 2016-CD2 and KeyBank was Michael O’Hanlon. The signatory for Berkowitz Pollack Brant registered was Barry Brant . The contract date was February 12, 2025. Kushner Companies bought this retail condo unit for $295 million in October 29, 2015, and lost it in foreclosure in 2024, New York State Supreme Court 850176/2020. Barry Brant is a CPA and “serves as the chief investment strategist of Orion Real Estate Group (formally known as Orion Investment and Management), the [Berkowitz Pollack Brant’s] real estate investment banking affiliate.”

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Berkowitz Pollack Brant registered had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Series 2016-CD2 had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The retail condo in Times Square has 243,916 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 243,916 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $114.4 million.

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 Times Square, The majority, or 58 percent of the 10.1 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Times Square has 3.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $957.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. For development, Times Square has 2.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 29 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the nine commercial properties representing 841,965 square feet of the 1,117,401 square feet. The largest owner is Estate Of Arthur G. Cohen, followed by Macarthur Holdings and then Providence Equity Partners.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 66 percent of the 1.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link