Lalezarian Properties pays $10.4M to Mossanen Group for air rights in Murray Hill

Lalezarian Properties through the entity 569 3rd Avenue LLC paid $10.4 million to the Mossanen Group through the entity East 37th Street LLC, to transfer air rights from the 48-unit residential building (D3) at 207 East 37th Street and the 34-unit residential building (D3) at 213 East 37th Street, to the three-parcel, mid-block development site at 569 Third Avenue, all in Murray Hill, Manhattan.
On these lots, there is one active new building construction project, M00749928, for a 200-unit, 154,219 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Lalezarian properties and filed by Kevin Lalezarian with plans filed June 15, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.
This is the sale of 44,308 square feet of development rights from the Mossanen buildings to the Lalezarian development project, for $235 per foot.
The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on November 5, 2024 and was recorded on November 8, 2024.
The signatory for Mossanen Group was Shaz Mossanen. The signatory for Lalezarian Properties was Kevin Lalezarian.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Lalezarian Properties purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $33.5 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Mossanen Group 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 Elliot Mossanen, head officer and Michael Conteduca, officer. The business entities are Mossanen Group and East 37th St Llc. Out of the five properties, three with a total of 78,008 square feet of built space generated revenue of $1 million per year.

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 one DOB violation, $24,375 in ECB penalties, and $24,525 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

The block

On the tax block of 207 East 37th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 12 commercial properties representing 165,356 square feet of the 201,500 square feet. The largest owner is Ion Mustatea, followed by Shahzad Mossanen and then Lalezarian Properties.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 154,219 square feet. It is a 200-unit, 154,219 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kevin Lalezarian and filed by Kevin Lalezarian with plans filed June 15, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 80 percent of the 201,500 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Lalezarian Properties owned at least 16 commercial properties with 1,786 residential units in New York City with 1,599,139 square feet and a city-determined market value of $437.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $754.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as JPMorgan Chase, New York Community Bank, and TD Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 90 percent of the 1,599,139 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 6 percent of the space. The bulk, or 57 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 43 percent of the space.

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