Lions Group signs $30M contract to buy Delshah Capital West Village rental through bankruptcy

UPDATED 12:55 p.m., September 28, 2023: Lions Group through the entity 100 Christopher LLC is in contract to buy 100 Christopher Street for $30.02 million from Michael Shah’s Delshah Capital, according to a bankruptcy petition filed yesterday in Manhattan. The contract was signed August 23.

100 Christopher Contract pdf

Bankruptcy LINK 23-11542-pb

Delshah filed the bankruptcy through the entity 100 Christopher Street Propco LLC, citing an ongoing default on loans (debentures) owed to Tel Aviv Stock Exchange bondholders that mature on September 30, but the sale is not expected to close until October 24.
Without the bankruptcy, the bondholders’ trustee could seize the property if the loans are not repaid by September 30, so this filing is made in order to block the trustee from taking over the property, so that the sale may proceed and so that all the creditors are paid off, according to the filing.
Lions Group, for its part, must close by October 24 in order to conform to a 1031 exchange time limit.
The bankruptcy states all creditors will be paid off through the sale. A document from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange states that if the property does not sell through this contract, the property will be sold at auction.
The property had gross revenue of $1.89 million in 2022 and so far in 2023 it has had gross revenue of $1.66 million, according to the bankruptcy filing. Delshah Capital has a $19.2 million loan with Santander Bank secured by this property. There is no litigation related to the property, according to the filing. Michael Shah is CEO of Delshah Capital, and Patrick McCann, who filed the petition, is CFO.

A Meridian Capital Group team led by David Schechtman marketed the property and will be paid a commission, according to the filing. The broker identified in the the purchase and sale agreement was Michael Shah’s Distinct New York.

Delshah owns the property through the entity Delshah 100 Christopher LLC. It purchased the property in 2013 for $26.8 million.

The walkup building with 37 residential units and two retail units in the West Village has 21,849 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 69 feet and is 82 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,270 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $10.5 million.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $26.8 million on October 4, 2013.

The 21,849-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.8 million or $81 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $7,500 in ECB penalties, and $7,650 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or previous bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In West Village, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 10.2 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, West Village has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. For development, West Village has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. It had 657,169 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 17 of the 39 commercial properties representing 216,277 square feet of the 344,326 square feet. The largest owner is Alexander Lavian, followed by Brodsky Organization and then Croman Real Estate. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Delshah Capital owned at least 41 commercial properties with 629 residential units in New York City with 738,756 square feet and a city-determined market value of $169.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $511.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Arbor Realty Trust, Apollo Global Management, and Signature Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 41 percent of the 738,756 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 36 percent of the space. The bulk, or 62 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 38 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Michael Shah, head officer and Alena Shcharbakova, agent. The business entities are Delshah 100 Christopher Llc and Delshah 100 Christopher Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 104 Christopher Street, PincusCo identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those six items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on May 12, 2022 for the $1.5 million renovation of 9,074-square-foot residential (R-3) building with one residential units at 95 Bedford Street. Of those six items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $37.2 million. The most recent of the two was Grove Pad Trust which bought the 2,688-square-foot, three-unit three-family building (C0) on 16 Grove Street for $10.5 million from Kehoe Marital Trust on July 13, 2022. Of those six items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $40.5 million. The most recent of the three was S.W. Management in which borrowed $5.2 million from Signature Bank secured by the 20,490-square-foot, 32-unit rental (D7) on 106 Christopher Street on August 25, 2022.

UPDATED with Meridian Capital Group as broker.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.