Friedland Properties pays $36M to Duell family for Madison Ave retail in Lenox Hill

Friedland Properties through the entity LF 2024 Retail LLC paid $36 million to Duell family through the entity 673 Madison LLC for the two-unit mixed-use building (K4) at 673 Madison Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. The Duell family put a nine-building, approximately $300 million portfolio on the market earlier this year.
The deal closed on September 17, 2024 and was recorded on September 26, 2024. The property has 9,320 square feet of built space and 11,921 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 21,250 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $3,862 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,694 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 Duell family was Alexander McMahon. The signatory for Friedland Properties was William Friedland. The contract date was June 10, 2024. The Commercial Observer reported on the sale yesterday. The brokers were CBRE’s Daniel Kaplan and Justin Arzi, as well as former CBRE vice chairman Darcy Stacom, who left the brokerage to start her own firm, Stacom CRE, earlier this year.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Friedland Properties purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $10.2 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Duell family had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Renee Citera, head officer and Adriano Tapia, site manager. The business entity is 673 Madison Llc C/O Duell Llc.

The property

The mixed-use building with 2 residential units in Lenox Hill has 9,320 square feet of built space and 11,921 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 21,250 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 85 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,125 square feet. The zoning is C5-1 which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Upper East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $14.7 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 $1,530 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 Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 16 commercial properties representing 417,093 square feet of the 793,864 square feet. The largest owner is Spitzer Enterprises, followed by Reuben Brothers and then Browning School.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling zero square feet. It is a one-unit J-3 building submitted by Hans Linderoth with plans filed April 30, 2007 and permitted August 3, 2016.

The majority, or 45 percent of the 793,864 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Friedland Properties owned at least 12 commercial properties with 501 residential units in New York City with 653,890 square feet and a city-determined market value of $286.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $98.6 million in debt, borrowed from M&T Bank and Cathay Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 86 percent of the 653,890 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 5 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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