Japanese bakery pays $24.4M to Icon for 16-unit rental in NoMad

Taguchi & Co. through the entity Taguchi & Co., Ltd. paid $24.4 million to Icon Realty Management through the entity 43 West 27 Realty Associates LLC for the 16-unit residential elevator building (D7) at 43 West 27th Street in NoMad, Manhattan.
The deal closed on June 5, 2024 and was recorded on July 5, 2024. The property has 20,868 square feet of built space and 3,651 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,510 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,167 and the price per buildable square foot is $994 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 9, 2013, for $8.5 million. The signatory for Icon Realty Management was Terrence Lowenberg. The contract date was March 25, 2024. Crain’s reported last month that the Japanese dessert maker  made the purchase. Last year, the Japan-based company bought a Brooklyn dessert maker Brooklyn Brands from the seller consumer-focused advisory firm and merchant bank, Astor Group.  The buyer address is at the address of Brooklyn Brands in the Bronx.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Taguchi & Co. had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Icon Realty Management purchased one properties in one transactions for a total of $4.8 million and sold five properties in five transactions for a total of $57.4 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Terrence Lowenberg, head officer and Todd Cohen, officer. The business entity is 43 West 27 Realty Associates, Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 16 residential units in NoMad has 20,868 square feet of built space and 3,651 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,510 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,451 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The property is in the Madison Square North Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.5 million. The most recent loan totaled $17.5 million and was provided by Series 2019-Icon on January 1, 2024.

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 $3,600 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on September 18, 2018. 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 17 of the 36 commercial properties representing 737,152 square feet of the 1,347,539 square feet. The largest owner is Yucaipa Companies, followed by Stellar Management and then Savanna.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 24,325 square feet. It is a 52-unit, 24,325 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Ezra Aini with plans filed May 19, 2014 and permitted December 14, 2020.

The majority, or 58 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Icon Realty Management owned at least 76 commercial properties with 1,025 residential units in New York City with 849,084 square feet and a city-determined market value of $311 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $303.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, BCB Community Bank, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 65 percent of the 849,084 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with office properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 90 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 10 percent of the space.

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