Policy nonprofit pays $15M to Taconic, L+M, for shuttered food hall in Lower East Side

UPDATED 1:40 p.m., May 19, 2025: The right-of-center nonprofit Rosenkranz Foundation paid $15 million to Taconic Partners, L+M Development Partners, and BFC Development Partners through the entity Site 3 Dsa Market LLC for the former retail food hall condominium unit and a second floor commercial unit, at 202 Broome Street at the Essex Crossing development in Lower East Side, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on May 1, 2025 and was recorded on May 16, 2025. The food hall property, which sold for $12.9 million, has 35,421 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $363 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 smaller unit, BSG, sold for $2.1 million and has 6,418 square feet, with 6,078 on the second floor and the rest on the first floor.
The signatory for Taconic Partners , L+M Development Partners , and BFC Development Partners was Andrew Zlotnick . The signatory for Rosenkranz Foundation was Robert Rosenkranz . The contract date was August 16, 2024. This is the former below ground food court, the Market Line Food Hall. Eater reported in September 2024 that it was closing. Most of the 35,421 is in the lower level, with 31,911.

The nonprofit Rosenkranz Foundation supports conservative public policy generally, including a focus in higher education, and also supports the arts.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Rosenkranz Foundation had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Taconic Partners purchased two properties in one transaction for a total of $202.2 million and sold five properties in four transactions for a total of $237 million over the same time period.

The property

The retail condo in Lower East Side has 35,421 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 35,421 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.1 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 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. On the tax lot, the most recent condominium plan was filed by SITE 3DSA OWNER LLC C/O TACONIC INVESTMENT PARTNERS to create 83 residential units and 4 commercial units in a building at 202 Broome Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan, called One Essex Crossing Condominium that has a $30.5 million sellout, according to an July 02, 2019 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principals of the sponsor, SITE 3DSA OWNER LLC C/O TACONIC INVESTMENT PARTNERS, were Brandon Baron, Charles Bendit, Donald Capoccia, Joseph Ferrara, Sanford Loewentheil, Ronald Moelis, and Paul Pariser.

The neighborhood

In Lower East Side, The majority, or 51 percent of the 23.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, Lower East Side has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $172.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lower East Side has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 683,393 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the five commercial properties representing 602,997 square feet of the 629,374 square feet. The largest owner is Gotham Organization, followed by Chinese-American Planning Council and then Nyc Department Of Housing Preservation And Development.
On the tax block, there were five new building construction projects totaling 1,868,584 square feet. The largest is a 366-unit, 519,365 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Gotham Organization and filed by David Picket with plans filed March 6, 2020 and permitted January 28, 2021. The second largest is a 116-unit, 519,365 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Gotham Organization and filed by David Picket with plans filed April 10, 2020 and permitted April 22, 2021.

The majority, or 96 percent of the 629,374 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 4 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that L+M Development Partners owned at least 238 commercial properties with 23,409 residential units in New York City with 21,598,329 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.2 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $3.4 billion in debt, with top three lenders as NYC Housing Development Corporation, Wells Fargo, and NYS Housing Finance Agency respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 83 percent of the 21,598,329 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 13 percent of the space. The bulk, or 43 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 40 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Taconic Partners owned at least 26 commercial properties with 2,211 residential units in New York City with 2,281,401 square feet and a city-determined market value of $371.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.3 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Apollo Global Management, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, and Upper Manhattan Empowerment respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 44 percent of the 2,281,401 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with office properties next occupying 24 percent of the space. The bulk, or 54 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Manhattan next at 46 percent of the space.

Correction: The Rosenkranz Foundation bought two commercial condo units. An earlier version of this post only included information about the food hall sale. The smaller $2.1 million sale was added in this correction.

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