Milsmith signs $11M loan for office in Garment District

Milsmith through the entity 45 West 36th Street LLC as borrower signed an initial loan with lender Apple Bank for Savings valued at $11 million for the office building (O6) at 43 West 36th Street in Garment District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on August 24, 2023 and was recorded on September 6, 2023. The property has 108,875 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $100 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 Milsmith was Jeffrey D. Smith. The signatory for Apple Bank for Savings was Howard Hsu. This is an $8 million senior loan and a $2.99 million credit line mortgage.

The property

The office building in Garment District has 108,875 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,889 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $17.8 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 one DOB violation and $1,500 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 neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 51.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 12 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has 2.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $746.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, Garment District has 3.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 6th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 29 commercial properties representing 660,424 square feet of the 1,676,094 square feet. The largest owner is Vanbarton Group, followed by Sioni Group and then Olmstead Properties.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 241,773 square feet. The largest is a 313-unit, 194,949 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Hidrock Properties and filed by Eddie Hidary with plans filed June 14, 2013 and permitted March 3, 2015. The second largest is a 143-unit, 46,824 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Richard Fung with plans filed December 4, 2014 and permitted March 9, 2017.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 1.7 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Milsmith owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 70,217 square feet and a city-determined market value of $12.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $13 million in debt, borrowed from Apple Bank for Savings. The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

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