Midwood Investment pays $102M to BlackRock for residential elevator in West Village

Midwood Investment & Development through the entity Jopep LLC paid $102 million to BlackRock through the entity 56 7th Avenue, LLC for midblock 159-unit residential elevator building at 56 7th Avenue in West Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on May 10, 2022 and was recorded on May 20, 2022. The property has 142,204 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $717 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 BlackRock was Debra Mistretta. The signatory for Midwood Investment & Development was John Usdan. The Real Deal first reported the property was in contract. 

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Midwood Investment & Development purchased one properties in one transactions for a total of $17 million and sold three properties in one transactions for a total of $9.8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller BlackRock had not purchased any other properties and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $42.3 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes John Kent, head officer and Cathy Bernstein, officer. The business entities are Rose Associates, Inc. and 56 7th Avenue Llc.

The property

The 56 7th Avenue parcel has frontage of 112 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 11,250 square feet. The zoning is C6-3A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $39 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 $400 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 West Village, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 15.7 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, West Village has 2.5 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $690.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. For development, West Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 152,386 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 0.97 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 47 commercial properties representing 123,165 square feet of the 524,650 square feet. The largest owner is S.W. Management, followed by Croman Real Estate and then Scharfman Organization. There is one active new building construction project totaling 29,671 square feet. It is a N/A-unit, 29,671-square-foot B building developed by Chun Lee with plans filed February 12, 2015 and permitted September 11, 2019.

The majority, or 40 percent of the 573,833 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Midwood Investment & Development owned at least two commercial properties with 26,355 square feet and a city-determined market value of $12.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $14.2 million in debt, borrowed from Valley National Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 68 percent of the 26,355 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. The bulk, or 68 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 32 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 56 7th Avenue, Pincusco identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
One of those four items was a sale which 221 W 13th Street Development LLC bought the 3,840-square-foot, four-unit four-family building (C3) on 221 West 13th Street for $6.3 million from Misra Group on September 23, 2021.
Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $35.8 million. The most recent of the three was Nathanial Rahav which borrowed $9.5 million from Signature Bank secured by the 7,650-square-foot, nine-unit rental (C7) on 149 West 14th Street and two other properties on May 9, 2022.

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