NYU pays $75.5M to Hebrew Union College for specialty in Greenwich Village

New York University, one of the largest land owners in the city, paid $75.5 million to Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute Of Religion for the specialty building (W6) at 1 West 4th St in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 30, 2025 and was recorded on February 3, 2025. The property has 85,000 square feet of built space and 19,015 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 104,067 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $888 and the price per buildable square foot is $725 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 PincusCo database currently indicates that New York University owned at least 101 commercial properties with 12,414,811 square feet, 3,052 residential units and a city-determined market value of $2.7 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 45 percent of the 12,414,811 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with hotel properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. The bulk, or 91 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 9 percent of the space.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 93 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 17,287 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 property is in the NoHo Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.4 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 $50 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 Greenwich Village, The bulk, or 24 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Greenwich Village has 2.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 12 of the 14 commercial properties representing 712,621 square feet of the 903,684 square feet. The identified owner is New York University.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 65 percent of the 903,684 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with office buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

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