Kenneth Eckstein sells Lower East Side retail for $4.4M

The anonymously owned entity 74 Orchard LLC in care of the Bullard Law Group paid $4.4 million to Kenneth Eckstein through the entity No. 74 Orchard St. Realty Co. Inc for the retail building (K4) at 74 Orchard Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 15, 2024 and was recorded on March 1, 2024. The property has 6,550 square feet of built space and 2,208 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,748 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $671 and the price per buildable square foot is $502 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 Kenneth Eckstein was Kenneth H. Eckstein. The signatory for the buyer was Edward J. Bullard Jr. The contract date was January 17, 2024. The Eckstein family’s seller entity has owned the property since 1920, for more than 100 years. Kenneth H. Eckstein is an attorney with Kramer Levin. The acquisition was financed with a purchase money mortgage.

Prior sales and revenue

The seller Kenneth Eckstein had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the past two years.

The property

The retail building in Lower East Side has 6,550 square feet of built space and 2,208 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,748 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 87 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,187 square feet. The zoning is C4-4A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 4 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.4 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 $50 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 Lower East Side, The majority, or 51 percent of the 23.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Lower East Side has 1.6 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $457.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. For development, Lower East Side has 1.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 22nd highest in Manhattan. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 20 commercial properties representing 378,277 square feet of the 479,536 square feet. The largest owner is Thomas Fok, followed by Sheryl Hempel and then Sanglimchi.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 11,125 square feet. It is a 12-unit, 11,125 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Daniel Wise with plans filed September 1, 2017 and permitted October 13, 2022.

The majority, or 66 percent of the 479,536 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

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