Hiwin Group pays $10.5M to Moinian Group, expands Midtown West dev site

Hiwin Group USA through the entity HW W 54th St LLC paid Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group through the entity 236 West 54th Street LLC $10.5 million for 236 West 54th Street, a two-story retail building that has a total of 25,100 square feet of development potential, according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The building is the tax lot to the east of 238-240 West 54th Street, which Hiwin Group purchased on May 21, 2024, for $21 million. Hiwin has not yet filed new building plans for either tax lot.
The combined frontage is 75 feet on West 54th Street.

The sale closed on October 7, 2024, after going into contract on March 1, 2024. The sale was recorded on October 10, 2024. The signatory for Hiwin Group was Heli Song, and for Moinian Group was Joseph Moinian.
Joseph Moinian bought this building in 1998 for $1.55 million, according to a PincusCo analysis of transfer records.

The property

The retail building at 236 West 54th Street in Midtown West has 4,190 square feet of built space and 20,908 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,100 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,510 square feet. The zoning is C6-7 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.5 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 4,190-square-foot property generated revenue of $375,598 or $90 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial renovation certificate of occupancy on February 15, 2017.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $2,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 27.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 36 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 11 commercial properties representing 239,266 square feet of the 1,037,202 square feet. The largest owner is Allied Partners, followed by Hiwin Group Usa and then Shmuel Baror. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 236 West 54 Street, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $502.2 million. The most recent of the three was Hiwin Group USA which bought the 28,325-square-foot, three-unit mixed-use building (K4) on 240 West 54th Street for $21 million from Gerald Shallo on May 28, 2024. Of those five items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $144.1 million. The most recent of the two was Moinian Group in which borrowed $135.6 million from Newmark secured by four condo units in the 268,626-square-foot, 396-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 890 8th Avenue on October 24, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.