Leading Japanese publisher pays $27M to nonprofit for office in Flatiron District

Kodansha USA through the entity Kodansha USA Building, LLC paid $27 million to the Foundation for a Just Society through the entity Hannah Charitable LLC for the office building (O2) at 25 East 22nd Street in Flatiron District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 25, 2024 and was recorded on January 29, 2024. The property has 16,894 square feet of built space and 16,032 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 32,920 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,598 and the price per buildable square foot is $820 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 June 18, 2014, for $26.9 million. The signatory for Foundation for a Just Society was Audrey Cappell. The signatory for Kodansha USA was company CEO Alvin Lu. The contract date was November 22, 2023. This was the headquarters for the nonprofit Foundation for a Just Society started by Audrey Cappell, daughter of billionaire hedge fund manager James Simons. Kodansha USA is a publisher of manga and other books, and is a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha, one of the largest publishers in the country. 

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Kodansha USA had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Foundation for a Just Society had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Flatiron District has 16,894 square feet of built space and 16,032 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 32,920 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 33 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,292 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $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 $1,350 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 18, 2014. 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 Flatiron District, The majority, or 71 percent of the 23.2 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $282.8 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 29th highest in Manhattan. For development, Flatiron District has 2.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 16 commercial properties representing 628,892 square feet of the 711,717 square feet. The largest owner is Sorgente Group, followed by Sol Goldman Investments and then SL Green Realty.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 95 percent of the 711,717 square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 3 percent of the space.

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