Jack Saadeh pays $31.3M for 107-year-old office building in Murray Hill

Jack Saadeh through the entity Lmr Assets LLC paid $31.3 million to Steven Klein through the entity 148 Mad New Owner LLC for the office building (O6) at 148 Madison Avenue in Murray Hill, Manhattan. The building was constructed in 1917, according to marketing materials and city records.
The deal closed on June 7, 2024 and was recorded on June 14, 2024. The property has 71,871 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $435 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 Steven Klein was Steven Klein. The signatory for Jack Saadeh was Jack Saadeh.

Saadeh along with his brother Victor Saadeh, and Jack Yadid, leads Gourmet Home Products, a manufacturer of home goods, according to the firm website.

The contract date was December 11, 2023. Steven Klein is a partner with Val-Add Real Estate Partners, and has been an executive with other real estate firms over the past decades including Brickman, JOSS Realty Partners and Broadway Partners. Steven Klein in care of the company Kleinco, Inc. and David Winoker in care of Winoker Realty bought the building in 2001 for $13.8 million (PincusCo calculated that figure using the state transfer tax paid and the tax rate at the time) from Mark Karasick. David Winoker died in a skydiving accident in 2012, and after that his family became a passive investor.

To finance the purchase, Jack Saadeh through the entity LMR Assets LLC as borrower signed a $19 million acquisition loan with lender Interaudi Bank. The prior lender was Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, an affiliate of CIGNA Investments, which held debt that had an original loan amount of $21.2 million.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Jack Saadeh had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Steven Klein had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Murray Hill has 71,871 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 49 feet and is 94 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,673 square feet. The zoning is C5-2 which allows for up to 10 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 $15.6 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 two DOB violations and $2,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 26 commercial properties representing 871,302 square feet of the 2,092,839 square feet. The largest owner is Think Properties NYC, followed by Rosen Equities and then Robert Gilardian.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 71 percent of the 2.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

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