Nonprofit theater venue pays $5M to Gruss & Co. for performance space in Alphabet City

The nonprofit community theater venue wild project, through the entity Wild Project Productions, Inc. paid $5 million to Gruss & Co. through the entity 500 Gwc, LLC for the specialty building (J7) at 195 East 3rd Street in Alphabet City, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on October 31, 2025 and was recorded on November 5, 2025. The property has 4,224 square feet of built space and 5,008 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,232 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,183 and the price per buildable square foot is $541 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 Gruss & Co. was David Zislin . The signatory for wild project was Ana Mari de Quesada. The contract date was July 31, 2025. Gruss & Co. bought it for $1.85 million in October 2002, according to a PincusCo analysis of transfer records. wild project already occupies the space.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer wild project had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Gruss & Co. had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in Alphabet City has 4,224 square feet of built space and 5,008 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,232 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 96 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,308 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $674,000.

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 not received any significant violations 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 Alphabet City, The majority, or 56 percent of the 13 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Alphabet City has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $300.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. For development, Alphabet City has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 317,390 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 20 commercial properties representing 142,735 square feet of the 307,520 square feet. The largest owner is Croman Real Estate, followed by Lockhill Properties and then Weinstein Realty Group.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 307,520 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space.

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