Kohan Retail, partners pay $85M to Namdar, Empire for office in Chelsea

UPDATED, 12:15 p.m., January 17, 2025: Kohan Retail Investment Group, along with partner Katan Realty Group, through the entity 345 7th Avenue Realty Owner LLC paid $85 million to Namdar Realty Group and Empire Capital Holdings through the entity 7th City Realty LLC for the office building (O5) at 345 Seventh Avenue and three adjacent smaller buildings, in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is conversion to residential and hotel.

The buyers financed the acquisition with a $73 million loan from Benefit Street Partners.

The four buildings are 345 Seventh Avenue, 343 Seventh Avenue, 341 Seventh Avenue and 167 West 29th Street. In addition to Kohan Retail and Katan Realty, the buyer group includes silent partner Ilya Mikhailov, of Forest Hills. Kohan Retail Investment Group is led by Mike Kohan, as CEO, and partners Alan Assil and Kevin Assil.

“We are diversifying into the Manhattan market and looking at many potential deals,” Mike Kohan said. He said they were looking to convert the Seventh Avenue building to residential and or hotel.

The deal closed on January 8, 2025 and was recorded on January 16, 2025. The price per foot based on a loss factor is $330 per square foot. (The four properties have 209,816 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $405 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 signatories for Namdar Realty Group and Empire Capital Holdings were Igal Namdar and Abraham Khalili. The signatory for Kohan Retail Investment Group, Katan Realty Group and Ilya Mikhailov was Mike Kohan, who also is known as Mehran Kohansieh. The contract date was May 1, 2024. Crain’s was the first to report the buyers were Katan Realty Group, Kohan Retail Investment Group and Ilya Mikhailov of Forest Hills, and that they would likely convert the property to residential.

Namdar Realty Group and Empire Capital Holdings paid $107 million for the properties in September 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Katan Realty Group had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Namdar Realty Group purchased 10 properties in nine transactions for a total of $293.1 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received $325 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 Chelsea, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 1.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were two pre-foreclosure suit filed among other mixed-use buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On the tax block of 345 7th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 17 commercial properties representing 640,254 square feet of the 898,617 square feet. The largest owner is Bernstein Real Estate, followed by Namdar Realty Group and then Feiner Grant Strategies.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 135,003 square feet. It is a 135,003 square-foot storage (S-1) building submitted by David Companies and filed by Stephen Skolas with plans filed July 9, 2020 and permitted July 13, 2021.

The majority, or 86 percent of the 898,617 square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Namdar Realty Group owned at least 80 commercial properties with 971 residential units in New York City with 2,130,236 square feet and a city-determined market value of $441.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $150.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Benefit Street Partners, Signature Bank, and Ladder Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 2,130,236 square feet of built space are office properties, with walkup properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 76 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 14 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Empire Capital Holdings owned at least six commercial properties in New York City with 988,462 square feet and a city-determined market value of $341.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $46.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Thorofare Capital, Alma Bank, and Hakimian Partners respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 97 percent of the 988,462 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 3 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 3 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Kohan Retail Investment Group owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 89,681 square feet and a city-determined market value of $25.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

Correction: A prior version of this post reported the sale price at $73 million, which is the transfer price in city records, but that is the correct figure. In fact it is $85 million. A comment from the buyer was also added.

Direct link to Acris document. link