Italian American Museum pays $2.5M to Nexus for commercial condo in Little Italy

The Italian American Museum paid $2.5 million to the Nexus Building Development Group through the entity Mulberry Grand Owner LLC for a commercial condominium at 185 Grand Street in Little Italy, Manhattan.
The deal closed on December 13, 2022 and was recorded on December 21, 2022.
The signatory for Nexus Building Development Group was Yaniv Shaky Cohen. The signatory for the Italian American Museum was Joseph V. Scelsa.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Italian American Museum had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Nexus Building Development Group had not purchased any other properties and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $11.5 million over the same time period.

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 not received any significant violations 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. On the tax lot, the most recent condominium plan was filed by Mulberry Grand Owner LLC to create 20 residential units and 2 commercial units in a building at 185 Grand Street in Little Italy, Manhattan, called Grand Mulberry that has a $39.5 million sellout, according to an December 21, 2020 submission to the New York State Attorney General.The principals of the sponsor, Mulberry Grand Owner LLC, were Yaniv Cohen, Eyal Epstein, and Ben Harlev.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 17 commercial properties representing 148,783 square feet of the 288,943 square feet. The largest owner is Regal Acquisitions, followed by Vivian Catenaccio and then NYC Department of Education.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 23,562 square feet. It is a 20-unit, 23,562-square-foot R-2 building developed by Yaniv Cohen with plans filed July 6, 2017 and permitted April 8, 2019.

The majority, or 50 percent of the 236,338 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Nexus Building Development Group owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 46,767 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $68.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as Be-Aviv, Continental Insurance Group, and Spruce Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 56 percent of the 46,767 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with D9 properties next occupying 44 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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