Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties pays SL Green $34M for 690 Madison

Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties paid SL Green Realty $34 million for a stake of the five-story retail building 690 Madison Avenue, in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The building at the corner of East 62nd Street is occupied by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels.

This property was transferred from the former owner Ashkenazy Acquisition to SL Green Realty on September 30, 2021 in an entity level transaction valued at about $74 million. Ashkenazy paid $115 million for the building in 2015.
At the same time as the sale, a loan with the Bank of China with an original principal of $72 million was paid off.
According to sources, this is for a 50 percent stake in the property, with SL Green retaining the other 50 percent, but other sources disputed that.

The sale closed on December 5, 2024, and the transfer records state the contract date is the same.
Van Cleef & Arpels is paying about $573 per foot for the space, which comes to about $4.5 million per year based on a measurement of 7,848 square feet used in document citing comparable leases in the area. However as in many retail leases, the gross rent payment does not cover existing taxes, which in this instance are about $1.9 million, so the net income would be closer to $2.6 million, according to a PincusCo calculation.

Andrew Levine signed on behalf of SL Green, while Jeff Sutton signed on behalf of the buyer.

The property

The retail building in Lenox Hill has 6,620 square feet of built space and 7,673 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 14,290 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 70 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,429 square feet. The zoning is C5-1 which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Upper East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $36.7 million. The most recent loan totaled $72 million and was provided by Bank of China on September 30, 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

The 6,620-square-foot property generated revenue of $3.3 million or $503 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations and $4,375 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.7 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 22 commercial properties representing 203,376 square feet of the 425,089 square feet. The largest owner is Buchbinder & Warren, followed by Chapman Group and then Dfaweast. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sl Green Realty owned at least 35 commercial properties with 892 residential units in New York City with 17,903,750 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.7 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 93 percent of the 17,903,750 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 4 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 23 East 62 Street, PincusCo identified 13 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 13 items, seven were sales above $5 million totaling $281.8 million. The most recent of the seven was JSRE Acquisitions which bought the 5,800-square-foot, nine-unit rental (C7) on 21 East 62nd Street for $7.4 million from Ashkenazy Acquisition, 101 Holdings, and Wharton Properties on October 23, 2024. Of those 13 items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $216.7 million. The most recent of the six was JSRE Acquisitions in which borrowed $11.2 million from Banque J. Safra Sarasin secured by the 5,800-square-foot, nine-unit rental (C7) on 21 East 62nd Street on December 9, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.