Liberty Bagels pays $9.4M to Walter & Samuels for office in Midtown East

Liberty Bagels through the entity Liberty Grand Central Realty LLC paid $9.4 million to Walter & Samuels through the entity Walsam 47th St LLC for the office building (O6) at 5 East 47th Street in Midtown East, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on October 23, 2025 and was recorded on November 3, 2025. The property has 14,025 square feet of built space and 11,069 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,100 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $670 and the price per buildable square foot is $374 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 August 31, 2015, for $18.3 million. The signatory for Walter & Samuels was David Berley . The signatory for Liberty Bagels was Victor D. Mejia . The contract date was April 30, 2025. Mejia also signed a contract to buy 1025 6th Avenue for $3.1 million. Crain’s reported on this sale previously.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Liberty Bagels had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Walter & Samuels had not purchased any other properties and sold 17 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $193.3 million over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Midtown East has 14,025 square feet of built space and 11,069 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 25,100 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,510 square feet. The zoning is C5-2.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.7 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 $1,250 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 Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 16.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 26 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 six of the 17 commercial properties representing 2,828,603 square feet of the 3,117,049 square feet. The largest owner is Jpmorgan Chase, followed by Mactaggart Family And Partners and then Daishin Securities.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 1,862,831 square feet. It is a 1,862,831 square-foot business (B) building submitted by JPMorgan Chase and filed by Devin Maher with plans filed June 26, 2019 and permitted November 30, 2021.

The majority, or 90 percent of the 3.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 6 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Walter & Samuels owned at least six commercial properties in New York City with 750,249 square feet and a city-determined market value of $105.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $99.7 million in debt, borrowed from Bank of America and Citibank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 58 percent of the 750,249 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 41 percent of the space. The bulk, or 59 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 41 percent of the space.

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