Heli Song pays $8M to Elysee Investment for 1-story retail in Flatiron District

Heli Song through the entity Hw W 14th St LLC paid $8 million to Elysee Investment Corp. through the entity Metropolitan Management LLC for the retail building (K1) at 31 West 14th Street in Flatiron District, Manhattan, just west of Union Square.
The deal closed on June 26, 2024 and was recorded on July 9, 2024. The property has 3,605 square feet of built space and 11,231 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,827 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,219 and the price per buildable square foot is $539 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 Elysee Investment Corp was Avi Dishi. The signatory for Heli Song was Heli Song. The contract date was February 28, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Heli Song had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Elysee Investment Corp purchased nine properties in one transactions for a total of $32 million and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $2.3 million over the same time period.

The property

The retail building in Flatiron District has 3,605 square feet of built space and 11,231 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,827 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 101 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,463 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.5 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 $600 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 Flatiron District, The majority, or 71 percent of the 23.2 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $299.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 25th highest in Manhattan. For development, Flatiron District has 2.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 13th 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 15 commercial properties representing 248,024 square feet of the 807,766 square feet. The largest owner is Xiaogang Wang, followed by Sol Goldman Investments and then Roberto Monteleone.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 73,983 square feet. The largest is a 50-unit, 63,248 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kevin Murray with plans filed February 15, 2019 and permitted March 5, 2020. The second largest is a 30-unit, 10,735 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Kumar Navnit with plans filed July 28, 2014 and permitted June 27, 2019.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 807,766 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Elysee Investment Corp owned at least 28 commercial properties with 783 residential units in New York City with 791,066 square feet and a city-determined market value of $97.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $176.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Flushing Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 791,066 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 43 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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