Kahen Properties pays $4.3M for landmarked retail in Gramercy

Kahen Properties through the entity Gramercy Third LLC paid $4.3 million to a trust for the late real estate investor Robinson Callen for the landmarked retail building (K2) at 190 Third Avenue in Gramercy, Manhattan. The property is an individual city landmark, which limits what the owner can do with the asset.
The deal closed on October 22, 2024 and was recorded on October 28, 2024. The property has 6,670 square feet of built space and 16,330 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 23,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $652 and the price per buildable square foot is $189 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 Robinson Callen was Lana Callen, Robin Callen, and Claire Callen. The signatory for Kahen Properties was Majid Kahen. The contract date was June 20, 2024. The property was owned by a trust in the name of the late Robinson Callen, a real estate developer who died in 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Kahen Properties purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $3.7 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Robinson Callen had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The retail building in Gramercy has 6,670 square feet of built space and 16,330 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 23,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 23 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,300 square feet. The zoning is C1-9A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2 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 $2,000 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 Gramercy, The bulk, or 31 percent of the 11.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Gramercy has 2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $498.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, Gramercy has 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 19 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 17 commercial properties representing 576,904 square feet of the 892,192 square feet.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 36 percent of the 892,192 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Kahen Properties owned at least 12 commercial properties with 384 residential units in New York City with 310,051 square feet and a city-determined market value of $64.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $118.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as TD Bank, Signature Bank, and Santander Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 61 percent of the 310,051 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 29 percent of the space. The bulk, or 48 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 33 percent of the space.

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