John Ilibassi pays $3.3M for specialty in Hell’s Kitchen

John Ilibassi through the entity One Eleven Group LLC paid $3.3 million to Bruce Haley through the entity 455 West 50th St., LLC for the specialty building (I5) at 455 West 50th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. The seller had owned the building for 45 years.
The deal closed on July 31, 2025 and was recorded on August 15, 2025. The property has 6,040 square feet of built space and 9,061 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 15,110 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $546 and the price per buildable square foot is $218 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 Bruce Haley was Bruce Haley. The signatory for John Ilibassi was Tracey Daniels O’Connell. The contract date was June 30, 2025. Bruce Haley and the late Carol Haley, bought the building on January 18, 1980. Traded NY reported the brokers were Robert Shapiro, Ian Brooks, Nicholas Kontos, and David Garcia of CBRE, but did not identify the buyer.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer John Ilibassi purchased four properties in four transactions for a total of $23.7 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Bruce Haley had not purchased any other properties and sold five properties in four transactions for a total of $27.5 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Bruce Haley, head officer and Gustavo Almonte, agent. The business entities are Tri-Hill Management Llc and 455 West 50th Street Llc.

The property

The specialty building in Hell’s Kitchen has 6,040 square feet of built space and 9,061 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 15,110 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 2,510 square feet. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.1 million. The property has 6 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2023.

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 $280 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 Hell’s Kitchen, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 40.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $815.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 13th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.3 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. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other specialty buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 17 of the 36 commercial properties representing 134,099 square feet of the 310,447 square feet. The largest owner is Kings Capital, followed by Jay Wartski and then Croman Real Estate.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 80 percent of the 310,447 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that John Ilibassi owned at least 14 commercial properties with 411 residential units in New York City with 360,161 square feet and a city-determined market value of $60.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $32.4 million in debt, borrowed from JPMorgan Chase and Capital One. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 360,161 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. The bulk, or 57 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 43 percent of the space.

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