Partners trade ground lease under Solaire rental-to-co-op conversion in Battery Park for $332M
20 River Terrace (Credit - Google)
Partners Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Albanese Organization internally transferred the ground lease at the Solaire at 20 River Terrace in Battery Park City with a valuation of $332 million, paying state and city transfer taxes totaling $10.9 million.
The transfer comes as the partners convert the rent-regulated rental building into a for-sale cooperative building. Crain’s reported sales were going well in what is one of the rare co-op conversions and one of what may be the last of the rental conversions of any kind following the 2019 pro-tenant legislation that increased the number of residents from 15 percent to 51 percent that needed to buy to move forward with a conversion.
A Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance executive through the entity The 20 River Terrace Apartment Corporation signed as the buyer for the transfer valued at $332.1 million, while an Albanese Organization executive through the entity River Terrace Associates, LLC signed for the seller, for 293-unit residential elevator building (D8) at 20 River Terrace in Battery Park City, Manhattan.
The deal closed on August 18, 2022 and was recorded on August 25, 2022. The property has 356,786 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $930 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 September 30, 2014, for $5.9 million. The signatory for Albanese Organization was Christopher V. Albanese. The signatory for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance was Angela Scodellaro.
Prior sales and revenue
Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Albanese Organization had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $4.7 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Russell Albanese, head officer and Christopher Albanese, officer. The business entities are Rose Associates, Inc. and River Terrace Associates Llc. The 356,786-square-foot property generated revenue of $21.3 million or $60 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
The property
The 20 River Terrace parcel has frontage of 71 feet and is 120 feet deep with a total lot size of 16,653 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $112.5 million.
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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 not received any significant violations in the last year.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 18 of the 65 commercial properties representing 14,083,989 square feet of the 17,601,478 square feet. The largest owner is Brookfield Properties, followed by Goldman Sachs and then LeFrak.
The majority, or 70 percent of the 15.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.
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