Namdar, Empire, Mason Asset pay $40.5M to Related for office in Hell’s Kitchen, was $152M in 2018

Namdar Realty Group, Empire Capital, and Mason Asset Management through the entity Plant Realty LLC (and others) paid $40.5 million through a short sale to Related Companies through the entity RREF II The Plant, LLC for the office building (O6) at 321 West 44th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing. Related’s Related Fund Management bought the building in 2018 for $152.5 million.
The deal closed on September 19, 2024 and was recorded on September 23, 2024. The property has 181,021 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $223 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 December 20, 2018, for $152.5 million. The signatory for Related Companies was Patrick Sweeney. The signatories for Namdar Realty Group, Empire Capital, and Mason Asset Management were Igal Namdar, Elliot Nassim, and Abraham Khalili. The contract date was June 7, 2024. Bloomberg reported on the sale in June, identifying CBRE as the broker.

The Related fund bought it for $152.5 million in 2018, which itself was a decline from the price in 2015, $165 million, which Japan-based Unizo Holdings paid.  The Related Fund Management planned to release the space to small tenants, the New York Post reported at the time, not redevelop the property The Namdar entity holds 92.5 percent, the Empire entity 5 percent and Elliot Nassim’s Mason Asset Management holds 2 percent.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Namdar Realty Group purchased 12 properties in 11 transactions for a total of $322 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Related Companies purchased five properties in three transactions for a total of $14.7 million and sold 15 properties in 14 transactions for a total of $827.8 million over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Hell’s Kitchen has 181,021 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 200 feet and is 201 feet deep with a total lot size of 23,525 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-2 which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $49.4 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 $5,025 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 Hell’s Kitchen, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 40.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 2.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $593.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 2.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.9 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.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 14 of the 22 commercial properties representing 535,831 square feet of the 830,298 square feet. The largest owner is GFP Real Estate, followed by David Schwartz and then Providence Equity Partners.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 830,298 square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Related Companies owned at least 176 commercial properties with 9,622 residential units in New York City with 21,240,766 square feet and a city-determined market value of $6 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5.9 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, Carlyle Group, and MetLife respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 44 percent of the 21,240,766 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 30 percent of the space. The bulk, or 61 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 23 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Namdar Realty Group owned at least 78 commercial properties with 971 residential units in New York City with 1,862,199 square feet and a city-determined market value of $370.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $150.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Benefit Street Partners, Signature Bank, and Ladder Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 1,862,199 square feet of built space are office properties, with walkup properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. The bulk, or 72 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 16 percent of the space.

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