Jews for Jesus pays $4.1M for mixed-use in Turtle Bay

Jews for Jesus through the entity Jews For Jesus paid $4.1 million to Ju Ga Jen Realty Inc. for the mixed-use building (S1) at 336 East 43rd Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 23, 2022 and was recorded on September 29, 2022. The property has 4,000 square feet of built space and 12,739 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 16,740 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,035 and the price per buildable square foot is $247 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 Ju Ga Jen Realty Inc. was Debra Powell. The signatory for Jews for Jesus was Robert King Tang. Jews for Jesus is a nonprofit, whose members believe that, “Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah our prophets foretold,” according to the group’s website. Robert King Tang is the CFO for Jews for Jesus. Steven Pittleman, an attorney, is the long-time signatory for the seller.

Prior sales and revenue

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

The property

The 336 East 43rd Street parcel has frontage of 16 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,674 square feet. The zoning is R10 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Tudor City Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Turtle Bay, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 8.9 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Turtle Bay has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $94.3 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Turtle Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 20,814 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.23 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 85 percent of the 351,986 square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space.

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