Hiwin Group USA pays $15M for dev site in Garment District

Hiwin Group USA through the entity Hw W 34th St LLC paid $15 million to David Cohen through the entity 261 West 34th Street LLC for the development site (V1) at 245 West 34th Street in Garment District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 18, 2024 and was recorded on March 22, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 45,080 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 45,080 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $332 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 17, 2015, for $22.6 million. The signatory for David Cohen was Charles Cohen. The signatory for Hiwin Group USA was Heli Song. The contract date was November 22, 2023. Lois Weiss tweeted about this sale last week.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Hiwin Group USA had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller David Cohen had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 45 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,508 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.8 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

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 12,207 square-foot M building. The project was submitted by David Cohen with plans filed May 9, 2016 and permitted July 12, 2018.

The neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 51.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has 1.7 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $491 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, Garment District is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 27 commercial properties representing 948,897 square feet of the 2,262,329 square feet. The largest owner is Vornado Realty Trust, followed by Solil Management and then Shel Capital.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 196,772 square feet. The largest is a 300-unit, 157,517 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Chetrit Group and filed by Meyer Chetrit with plans filed April 5, 2016 and permitted August 21, 2017. The second largest is a 27,048 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Churchill Real Estate Holdings and filed by Jake Borden with plans filed April 26, 2016 and permitted December 10, 2018.

The majority, or 75 percent of the 2.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

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