Grid Group pays $8.4M for retail in Chelsea

Grid Group through the entity Fitz Roy Road LLC paid $8.4 million to Muriel Gould estate for the mixed-use building (K4) at 247 West 16th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on December 13, 2023 and was recorded on January 10, 2024. The property has 7,653 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,100 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 Muriel Gould was Joan Gould and Celia Gould. The signatory for Grid Group was Yiannes Einhorn. The contract date was June 15, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Grid Group purchased a Harlem development site for $6 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Muriel Gould had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The mixed-use building in Chelsea has 7,653 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 38 feet and is 80 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,883 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.6 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 $50 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 Chelsea, The bulk, or 36 percent of the 52.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. It had 2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 20 commercial properties representing 114,426 square feet of the 252,476 square feet. The largest owner is Scharfman Organization, followed by S.W. Management and then Renee Romero Trustee.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 252,476 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Grid Group owned at least three commercial properties with 1,309 residential units in New York City with 1,371,174 square feet and a city-determined market value of $113.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $70.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Northwind Group, First Republic Bank, and Midfirst Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 94 percent of the 1,371,174 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with D3 properties next occupying 5 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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