Nightingale school pays $17.25 to Ross & Ross for 11 properties in East Harlem

Nightingale-Bamford School, a private girls school based in Carnegie Hill, paid $17.25 million to Ross & Ross LLC through the entity Ross & Ross LLC for the 11 properties including the office building (O5) at 181 East 108th Street, the industrial building (G7) at 159 East 108th Street and the industrial building (G7) at 163 East 108th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied and ground up development. The school bought the properties in three transactions. The combined buildable square foot according to a PincusCo analysis was 89,296 or $193 per square foot. Ross & Ross LLC is one of the largest owners of real estate in the area, as PincusCo reported in 2022.
The deals closed on January 9, 2025 and were recorded on January 21, 2025.
In the first, nine properties were sold for $14.6 million and they have 6,425 square feet of built space and 69,358 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 75,776 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $192 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.)

In the second transaction, Nightingale-Bamford School paid $1.3 million to Ross & Ross LLC through the entity 1885 Third Avenue LLC for the industrial building (G6) at 167 East 108th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 9, 2025 and was recorded on January 21, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 6,760 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,760 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $196 per the PincusCo analysis.

In the third, Nightingale-Bamford School paid $1.3 million to Ross & Ross LLC through the entity Team Properties LLC for the development parcel (V1) at 157 East 108th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 9, 2025 and was recorded on January 21, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 6,760 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,760 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $196 per the PincusCo analysis.

The signatory for Ross & Ross LLC was Derek Cohn. The signatory for Nightingale-Bamford School was Paul Burke. The contract date was July 5, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Nightingale-Bamford School had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Ross & Ross LLC had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have received one DOB violation and $630 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 East Harlem, The majority, or 51 percent of the 52.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, East Harlem has 2.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $553.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. For development, East Harlem has 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 181 East 108th Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 39 commercial properties representing 302,280 square feet of the 402,048 square feet. The largest owner is New York City Housing Authority, followed by Ross & Ross LLC and then Croman Real Estate.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 64 percent of the 402,048 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

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