Harkham Ventures pays $26.8M to Golson Realty for residential elevator in Washington Heights

Los Angeles-based Harkham Ventures through the entity 555 Roger Morris, LLC paid $26.8 million to Golson Realty through the entity Golson Realty Corporation for the 127-unit residential elevator building at 555 Edgecombe Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 20, 2022 and was recorded on May 2, 2022.

The property has 168,000 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $159 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 Golson Realty was Mary Ellen Moule. The signatory for Harkham Ventures was Aron Harkham. Aron Harkham is managing director at Harkham Ventures.  Golson Realty was led by Matthew A. Golson and James Golson.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Harkham Ventures had purchased one property, 206 Spring Street in Soho for $10.5 million, and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Golson Realty 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 James Golson, head officer and Mary Aslan, officer. The business entity is Golson Realty Corp.

The property

The 555 Edgecombe Avenue parcel has frontage of 102 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 13,926 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 $7.5 million.The most recent loan totaled $21 million and was provided by New York Community Bank on March 23, 2020.

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 three housing violations and $4,000 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 $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 eight of the 19 commercial properties representing 303,765 square feet of the 578,208 square feet. The largest owner is James Golson, followed by City Skyline Realty and then Moses Mizrahi. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 45 percent of the 712,007 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 34 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
It was a loan which Massud Rahbar borrowed $8.7 million from Greystone & Co. secured by the 64,812-square-foot, 92-unit rental (D7) on 473 West 158th Street on September 8, 2020.

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