John Ilibassi pays $7M for 7-unit walkup in East Village

John Ilibassi through the entity Venter Trace Realty LLC paid $7 million to Bruce Gomez through the entity First Eastern Group Corp. for the seven-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 81 East 7th Street in East Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on October 19, 2023 and was recorded on October 25, 2023. The property has 6,128 square feet of built space and 3,632 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,752 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,142 and the price per buildable square foot is $717 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 Gomez was Bruce Gomez. The contract date was August 24, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer John Ilibassi purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $6.8 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Bruce Gomez had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Bruce Gomez, head officer. The business entity is First Eastern Group Corp.

The property

The residential walkup building with 7 residential units in East Village has 6,128 square feet of built space and 3,632 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,752 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 97 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,438 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the East Village / Lower East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.8 million.

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 $1,500 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 25 of the 47 commercial properties representing 244,229 square feet of the 390,836 square feet. The largest owner is Zenon Chernyk, followed by Sabet Group and then Baumrind & Baumrind.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 78 percent of the 390,836 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that John Ilibassi owned at least three commercial properties with 149 residential units in New York City with 163,928 square feet and a city-determined market value of $19 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $16.8 million in debt, borrowed from Capital One and JPMorgan Chase. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 83 percent of the 163,928 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 17 percent of the space. The bulk, or 95 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Manhattan next at 5 percent of the space.

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