Owner of iconic Gallaghers Steakhouse pays $11.75M for 50% share in building it occupies

Dean Poll, the owner of the iconic Gallaghers Steakhouse, through the entity 228 West 52nd Street LLC, paid $11.75 million to Marlene Brody through the entity Gallagher’s Stud, Inc. for a 50 percent stake in the ownership of the mixed-use building (K4) at 228 West 52nd Street in Midtown West, Manhattan. The fee is owned through a tenant-in-common structure with several other parties.
The deal closed on August 4, 2022 and was recorded on August 15, 2022. The property has 22,076 square feet of built space and 42,900 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 65,000 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $532 and the price per buildable square foot is $180 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 Marlene Brody was Marlene Brody. The signatory for Dean Poll was Dean Poll. In this transaction, restaurateur Dean Poll bought a 50 percent stake in the building where he operates Gallaghers Steakhouse, an iconic restaurant that opened during Prohibition. The building is owned by several individuals in a tenant-in-common structure, but the seller Marlene Brody was the largest owner with 50 percent stake. Dean Poll bought the restaurant in 2013 for an undisclosed amount and signed a new lease that year with a 20-year initial term and two five-year extension options. Other fee owners include members of the Yoken family and the Liss family.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Dean Poll had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Marlene Brody had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 22,076-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.5 million or $66 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 228 West 52nd Street parcel has frontage of 55 feet and is 118 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,500 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-7 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $7.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation and $1,535 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Midtown West, the majority, or 73 percent of the 77.7 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 12 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 15 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 14 commercial properties representing 48,368 square feet of the 1,137,829 square feet. The identified owner is Robert Gilardian.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 69 percent of the 1.1 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

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