Japan firm pays $10.4M to ABJ Properties for two walkups in Yorkville

The entity Olive Corporation with unknown ownership, paid $10.4 million to ABJ Properties through the entity 234-236 Holdings LLC for the 13-unit residential walkup building (C4) at 236 East 88th Street in Yorkville, Manhattan and 20-unit residential walkup building (C5) at 234 East 88th Street in Yorkville, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on July 1, 2025 and was recorded on July 17, 2025. The two properties have 17,110 square feet of built space and 18,122 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 35,238 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $607 and the price per buildable square foot is $295 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 ABJ Properties was Benjamin Soleimani . The signatory for Olive Corporation was Hirofusa Otsubo . The contract date was April 18, 2025. Hirofusa Otsubo is a vice president at Otsubo Realty, a brokerage, according to a LinkedIn account. Traded NY reported on this transaction previously.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Olive Corporation had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller ABJ Properties purchased 17 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $55.4 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $5.8 million over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Ben Soleimani, head officer. The business entity is 234-236 Holdings Llc. The two properties with a total of 17,110 square feet of built space generated revenue of $1.3 million per year or $78 per square foot. The sale price per square foot was $608.

The property

The residential walkup building with 13 residential units in Yorkville has 17,110 square feet of built space and 18,122 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 35,238 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,517 square feet. The zoning is C2-8 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 $4 million. The property has 4 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received one housing violation and $1,910 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 block

On the tax block of 236 East 88th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the eight commercial properties representing 42,760 square feet of the 573,156 square feet. The largest owner is Abr Properties, followed by ABJ Properties and then Frank Gabor.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 186,090 square feet. The largest is a 51-unit, 96,543 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Aimco Property & Investments and filed by Patti Shwayder with plans filed January 13, 2022 and permitted August 20, 2024. The second largest is a 41-unit, 89,547 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Aimco Property & Investments and filed by James Huang with plans filed September 13, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 89 percent of the 573,156 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Abj Properties owned at least 97 commercial properties with 1,110 residential units in New York City with 1,047,720 square feet and a city-determined market value of $163.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 88 percent of the 1,047,720 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 8 percent of the space. The bulk, or 42 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Manhattan next at 34 percent of the space.

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