Harkham Ventures pays $10.1M for 48-unit rental in Washington Heights

Efrem Harkham’s Harkham Ventures through the entity 596 Edgecombe LLC paid $10.1 million to Robert Yaffa through the entity C.E.Y. Realty Associates, LLC for the 48-unit residential elevator building at 596 Edgecombe Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on May 31, 2022 and was recorded on June 22, 2022.The property has 46,485 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $217 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 December 10, 2004, for $2.8 million. The signatory for Robert Yaffa was Robert Yaffa. The signatory for Efrem Harkham was Efrem Harkham.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Harkham Ventures has purchased three properties in three transactions for a total of nearly $50 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Robert Yaffa had not purchased any other properties and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $4.3 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Robert Yaffa, head officer and Santos Toribio, site manager. The business entities are Rhamco and C.E.Y. Realty Associates, Llc. The 46,485-square-foot property generated revenue of $791,082 or $17 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 596 Edgecombe Avenue parcel has frontage of 114 feet and is 105 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,704 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $310 in ECB penalties, 47 housing violations, $435 in OATH penalties, and two housing litigations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Washington Heights, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 78 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Washington Heights has 1.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $366.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. It had 1 million 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 10 of the 23 commercial properties representing 144,049 square feet of the 425,482 square feet. The largest owner is New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, followed by City Skyline Realty and then Allied Realty & Development. There is one active new building construction project totaling 8,712 square feet. It is a 12-unit, 8,712-square-foot R-2 building developed by David Manesh with plans filed August 15, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 636,627 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 596 Edgecombe Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
It was a permit application filed on March 1, 2022 for the $1.5 million renovation of 15,048-square-foot A-3 building with zero residential units at 465 West 162nd Street.

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