J.T. Tai & Company Foundation sells two Manhattan properties for $41.5M

The nonprofit J.T. Tai & Company Foundation has sold two properties from their Manhattan portfolio for a total of $41.5 million, public records show. The buyer’s true identity could not immediately be determined as it is shielded by limited liability companies.

The properties are an 82-unit residential elevator building at 847-857 Second Avenue in Turtle Bay, which has alternate an address at 246-248 East 46th Street and the 16-unit residential walkup building at 959-961 Second Avenue in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.

The deal closed on April 8, 2022 and was recorded on April 20, 2022. The two properties have 79,633 square feet of built space and 103,157 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 182,760 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data.

Kueichu Wang Hsu was the signatory for J.T. Tai & Company Foundation. Gary J. Strauss signed for the buyer Plus 1 LLC, B Chai LLC, 2009-2019 LLC and Gibor Group LLC. The buyers were listed in care of Oak B Management Corp. and Ronen Samson. The purchases were funded with a $22 million acquisition loan from Signature Bank.

Commercial Observer first reported in October that the nonprofit was looking to offload a portfolio of  four properties including these two for a total of $77 million. The other properties are 17 East 70th Street and 18 East 67th Street. No recent sales of these properties have been recorded.

The sale price per built square foot is $521 and the price per buildable square foot is $227 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.)

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 847 2nd Avenue.

Prior sales and revenue

The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Kueichu Hsu, head officer and William Hogan, agent. The business entity is J T Tai & Co Incorporation. The two properties with a total of 79,633 square feet of built space generated revenue of $3.2 million per year or $41 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $521.

The property

The 847 2nd Avenue parcel has frontage of 150 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 15,042 square feet. The zoning is C1-9 which allows for up to 2 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 $13.2 million.
The 961 2nd Avenue parcel has frontage of 40 feet and is 80 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,234 square feet. The zoning is C1-9 which allows for up to 2 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 $3.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received three DOB violations, $5,000 in ECB penalties 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.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, the majority, or 74 percent of the 47.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 557,614 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 847 2nd Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 221 commercial properties representing 408,999 square feet of the 1,096,411 square feet. The identified owner is Durst Organization.

The majority, or 77 percent of the 1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 847 2nd Avenue, Pincusco identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those six items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $171.6 million. The most recent of the three was Republic of Senegal which bought one condo unit in the 68-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 227 East 44th Street for $11.6 million from Adam Gordon on April 29, 2020.
Of those six items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $130.8 million. The most recent of the three was Hildreth Real Estate Advisors which borrowed $5.2 million from Maxim Capital Group secured by the 5,250-square-foot, four-unit mixed-use building (S3) on 838 2nd Avenue and one other property on March 8, 2022.

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