Meadow Partners pays $288.2M to RFR Holding for office building in West Village

Meadow Partners through the entity 95 Morton Gorp Property LLC paid $288.2 million to RFR Holding through the entity 95 Morton LLC for the office building (O3) at 95 Morton Street in West Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on June 28, 2022 and was recorded on July 12, 2022. The property has 154,328 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,867 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 April 5, 2017, for $206 million. The signatory for RFR Holding was Frank Mangieri. The signatory for Meadow Partners was Jeffrey M. Kaplan. Commercial Observer first reported the sale of the property. The previous loan went into special servicing, according to Crain’s New York. 

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Meadow Partners purchased eight properties in seven transactions for a total of $540.8 million and sold seven properties in six transactions for a total of $153.8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller RFR Holding purchased 10 properties in two transactions for a total of $641 million and sold two properties in one transaction for a total of $5.8 million over the same time period. The 154,328-square-foot property generated revenue of $16.4 million or $106 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 95 Morton Street parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,019 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $64.8 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 one DOB violation and $200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 22, 2017. 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 West Village, the bulk, or 39 percent of the 14 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 20 percent of the space. In sales, West Village has 2.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $930 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. For development, West Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 191,281 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 10 commercial properties representing 7,144 square feet of the 464,654 square feet. The identified owner is William Gottlieb Real Estate. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 29 percent of the 771,681 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that RFR Holding owned at least 25 commercial properties in New York City with 3,356,957 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.3 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 92 percent of the 3,356,957 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 6 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Meadow Partners owned at least 27 commercial properties in New York City with 1,329,334 square feet and a city-determined market value of $311 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $453.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Fortress Investment Group, Sterling National Bank, and Apollo Global Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 1,329,334 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 53 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 47 percent of the space.

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