Japan-based restaurant corp. pays $7.2M to Derby Copeland for mixed-use in East Village

The Tokyo-based restaurant company Toraji Corporation paid $7.2 million to Derby Copeland Capital through the entity Derby Bow 9 LLC for the two-unit mixed-use building (S2) at 218 East 9th Street in East Village, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on April 1, 2025 and was recorded on April 9, 2025. The property has 4,914 square feet of built space and 1,386 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,300 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,475 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,150 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 October 15, 2021, for $5.1 million. The signatory for Derby Copeland Capital was a third-party attorney, Aphrodite Hepheastou. The contract date was January 28, 2025. Toraji Corporation, based in Japan, already operates a restaurant in the building, Yakiniku Gen East Village, one of five restaurants in the city.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Toraji Corporation had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Derby Copeland Capital purchased five properties in four transactions for a total of $60.2 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jesse Hutcher, head officer and Jonathan Scibilia, officer. The business entity is Derby Bow 9, Llc.

The property

The mixed-use building with 2 residential units in East Village has 4,914 square feet of built space and 1,386 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,300 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 21 feet and is 75 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,575 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.3 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 $180 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In East Village, The bulk, or 44 percent of the 15.5 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, East Village has 2.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $597.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, East Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 558,132 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 30 commercial properties representing 162,008 square feet of the 270,844 square feet. The largest owner is Gpg Properties, followed by Derby Copeland Capital and then Movcap.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 29,089 square feet. It is a 29,089 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Mark Seigel with plans filed October 12, 2018 and permitted April 27, 2023.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 270,844 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Derby Copeland Capital owned at least 11 commercial properties with 260 residential units in New York City with 200,536 square feet and a city-determined market value of $65.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $144.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Derby Copeland Capital, MF1 Capital, and Fortress Investment Group respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 200,536 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 38 percent of the space. The bulk, or 95 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 5 percent of the space.

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