Osaka-based Shinwa Real Estate pays $8.8M for 20-unit UWS walkup, 2nd UWS buy

Osaka, Japan-based Shinwa Real Estate Co. paid $8.8 million to Brand Family Realty through the entity Tor 159, LLC for the 20-unit residential walkup building (C5) at 159 West 85th Street in Upper West Side, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on March 31, 2025 and was recorded on April 10, 2025. The property has 11,880 square feet of built space and 1,973 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 13,848 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $744 and the price per buildable square foot is $638 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 August 23, 2022, for $6.8 million. The signatory for Brand Family Realty was David R. Brand . The signatory for Shinwa Real Estate Co., Ltd was a third-party attorney, Devin Yasuda . The contract date was March 12, 2025.

This is the buyer’s second purchase in the neighborhood. Shinwa Real Estate Co., an affiliate of Shinwa Group, paid $9.5 million for the 10-unit 203 West 80th Street in 2022.

Devin Yasuda is a founder of the Manhattan-based law firm D5 Law Office, and has been the signatory for at least 10 purchases by Japanese companies in New York City over the past three years, according to PincusCo data.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Shinwa Real Estate Co., Ltd had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Brand Family Realty had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes David Brand, head officer and Acacio Vazquez, site manager. The business entity is Tor 159, Llc. The 11,880-square-foot property generated revenue of $654,852 or $55 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The residential walkup building with 20 residential units in Upper West Side has 11,880 square feet of built space and 1,973 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 13,848 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 35 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,462 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.6 million. The property has 5 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2022.

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 $1,950 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 32 commercial properties representing 631,241 square feet of the 687,804 square feet. The largest owner is Morris Schreiber, followed by Richard Eisenberg and then Rudin Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 79 percent of the 687,804 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Brand Family Realty owned at least eight commercial properties with 100 residential units in New York City with 61,242 square feet and a city-determined market value of $27.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are walkup properties. The bulk, or 93 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 7 percent of the space.

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