Hedge fund investor pays $17M for two townhouses in Greenwich Village

An affiliate of hedge fund investor Louis Bacon through the entity 133-135 W. 13th Street Holdings, LLC paid $17 million to Kenneth Rosenblum through the entity 133 And 135 W 13th St, LLC for the six-unit mixed-use building (S5) at 133 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan and five-unit mixed-use building (S5) at 135 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 6, 2023 and was recorded on September 21, 2023. The two properties have 9,600 square feet of built space and 677 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 10,288 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,770 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,652 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 Kenneth Rosenblum was Kenneth Rosenblum. The signatory for Louis Bacon was Katherine Maksim. Kenneth Rosenblum and additional family members bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2017. The contract date was entered in error. It says 9/23/2023 but that is impossible since that is after the closing date, 9/6/2023.
The buyer is in care of Belvedere Property Management, which is controlled by Louis Bacon, founder of the hedge fund Moore Capital Management, all based in 11 Times Square.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 133 West 13th Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Louis Bacon had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Kenneth Rosenblum purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $23 million and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $9.6 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Kenneth Rosenblum, joint owner and Denise Rosenblum, joint owner. The two properties with a total of 9,600 square feet of built space generated revenue of $422,016 per year or $44 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $1,771.

The property

The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. 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 properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received four DOB violations and $100 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 Greenwich Village, The bulk, or 24 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has 3.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Greenwich Village has 2.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 12 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 133 West 13th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 22 commercial properties representing 301,104 square feet of the 364,121 square feet. The largest owner is S.W. Management, followed by Rosen Equities and then KPG Funds.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 96,905 square feet. It is a 71-unit, 96,905 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Izaki Group Investments and filed by Modi Feibish with plans filed October 27, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 364,121 square feet of built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Kenneth Rosenblum owned at least 30 commercial properties with 640 residential units in New York City with 492,236 square feet and a city-determined market value of $120.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $47.8 million in debt, borrowed from JPMorgan Chase. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 85 percent of the 492,236 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 10 percent of the space. The bulk, or 57 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 43 percent of the space.

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