Louis Browne pays $5.5M for 5-unit walkup in Chelsea

Louis Browne through the entity Brownestone LLC paid $5.5 million to the estate of Richard Foster for the five-unit residential walkup building (C2) at 359 West 20th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 13, 2023 and was recorded on July 20, 2023. The property has 4,472 square feet of built space and 1,892 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,360 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,229 and the price per buildable square foot is $864 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 signatory for Richard Foster estate was Philip McCarthy. The signatory for Louis Browne was Louis R. Browne.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Louis Browne had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Richard Foster estate had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owner according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is Philip McCarthy, head officer. The business entity is Estate Of Richard Foster. The 4,472-square-foot property generated revenue of $192,967 or $43 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The residential walkup building with 5 residential units in Chelsea has 4,472 square feet of built space and 1,892 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,360 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 21 feet and is 74 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,590 square feet. The zoning is C2-6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 4 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Chelsea Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 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 $6,100 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 23 commercial properties representing 159,805 square feet of the 242,692 square feet. The largest owner is Ti-Hua Chang, followed by Slate Property Group and then Sabet Group.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 50 percent of the 242,692 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 37 percent of the space.

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