Museum of Chinese in America pays $51.1M for museum location in Little Italy

The Museum of Chinese in America paid $51.1 million to Larry Goodman through the entity Grand Machinery Exchange, Inc. for the office building (O5) at 211 Centre Street, with an alternate address of 215 Centre Street, in Little Italy, Manhattan. This is the second of two payments, with the first $7.4 million in 2021. The museum already occupies the building.
The deal closed on January 10, 2024 and was recorded on January 11, 2024. The property has 46,700 square feet of built space and 34,774 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 81,440 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,094 and the price per buildable square foot is $627 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 Larry Goodman was Larry Goodman and Perry Mintz. The signatory for Museum of Chinese in America was Eric T. Lee. The contract date was March 18, 2021. The city provided $39.4 million for the purchase, according to city records. On March 18, 2021, the day the contract was signed, the museum paid the Goodman entity $7,440,438.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Museum of Chinese in America had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Larry Goodman had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Little Italy has 46,700 square feet of built space and 34,774 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 81,440 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 74 feet and is 108 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,144 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5/R10 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.1 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 $50 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 1, 2014. 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 Little Italy, The bulk, or 33 percent of the 4.1 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Little Italy has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $172 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Little Italy has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 198,337 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 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 one of the five commercial properties representing 46,700 square feet of the 181,257 square feet. The identified owner is Museum of Chinese in America.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 55 percent of the 181,257 square feet of built space are office buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Museum Of Chinese In America owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 46,700 square feet and a city-determined market value of $8.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

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