Lucille Lortel Theater pays $5.4M for mixed-use in Chelsea

Lucille Lortel Theater through the entity Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation, Inc. paid $5.4 million to Cheryl B. Kramer through the entity Dutchess Bingo, LLC for the mixed-use building (K4) at 134 West 18th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on February 28, 2023 and was recorded on March 3, 2023. The property has 5,290 square feet of built space and 7,448 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 12,738 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,011 and the price per buildable square foot is $420 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 Cheryl B. Kramer was James Kirrane. Ira Kramer through the company Movie Star Photo Realty acquired the property in 1983.

The signatory for Lucille Lortel Theater was Hope K. Plasha. The Lucille Lortel Theater, with an office at 121 Christopher Street,  was in contract to buy the larger Cherry Lane Theater in 2021 for $11 million, but the deal fell through.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Lucille Lortel Theater had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Cheryl B. Kramer had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 5,290-square-foot property generated revenue of $239,038 or $45 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 134 West 18th Street parcel has frontage of 23 feet and is 92 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,116 square feet. The zoning is C6-2A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $50 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Chelsea, the bulk, or 36 percent of the 52.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 2.1 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 27 commercial properties representing 78,433 square feet of the 205,468 square feet. The largest owner is Robert Gilardian, followed by Hyunshin Park and then Eric Berliner.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 38 percent of the 140,222 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link