KSR affiliate pays $27.5M for mixed-use in Lenox Hill, up from $16.5M in 2022

An entity at the address of Kassin Sabbagh Realty, 34e61 LLC, paid $27.5 million to an entity tied to the conservative activist Jordan Sekulow, the entity 34 East 61st Street LLC, for the two-unit mixed-use building (K4) at 34 East 61st Street in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. Jordan Sekulow‘s entity bought the property in May 2022 for $16.5 million. Sekulow is the executive director of the nonprofit American Center for Law and Justice, which advocates for conservative causes.

This property midblock abuts one of the East 60th Street properties Gary Barnett’s Extell Development purchased from Solil Management for $103.5 million last month, which add to a development site centered on 655 Madison Avenue.
The deal closed on February 25, 2025 and was recorded on March 18, 2025. The property has 9,765 square feet of built space and 11,325 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 21,090 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,816 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,303 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 seller bought the property on May 18, 2022, for $16.5 million. The signatory for Jordan Sekulow was Donn Parsons. The signatory for the buyer entity affiliated with Kassin Sabbagh Realty was Albert Sultan, executive managing director at KSR. The contract date was October 16, 2024. The American Center for Law and Justice is the doing business as entity of the Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Inc. nonprofit.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Kassin Sabbagh Realty purchased 80 properties in seven transactions for a total of $62.1 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Jordan Sekulow had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jordan Sekulow, head officer and Jacob Charringer, officer. The business entity is 34 East 61st Street Llc.

The property

The mixed-use building with 2 residential units in Lenox Hill has 9,765 square feet of built space and 11,325 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 21,090 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 21 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,109 square feet. The zoning is C5-1 which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.5 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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on June 20, 2018. 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 Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has 2.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.3 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 11 commercial properties representing 1,145,832 square feet of the 1,251,557 square feet. The largest owner is Hartz Mountain Industries, followed by Extell Development and then Partyoftwo Llc.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 161,208 square feet. It is a 62-unit, 161,208 square-foot 70 building submitted by Extell Development and filed by David Rothstein with plans filed November 18, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 49 percent of the 1.3 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 48 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Jordan Sekulow owned at least one commercial property with two residential units in New York City with 9,765 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single mixed-use property. It is located in Manhattan.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Kassin Sabbagh Realty owned at least five commercial properties with 28 residential units in New York City with 36,449 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $29.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Maxim Capital Group, East West Bank, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 36,449 square feet of built space are retail properties, with walkup properties next occupying 29 percent of the space. The bulk, or 47 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 29 percent of the space.

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