Prana Equities pays $10.3M to Nakajimaya Hotels Co. for residential elevator in Grand Central

Prana Equities through the entity 111 East 38 St LLC paid $10.3 million to Nakajimaya Hotels Co. through the entity Nakajimaya Hotels Co., Ltd. for the 20-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 111 East 38th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 12, 2022 and was recorded on September 20, 2022. The property has 15,035 square feet of built space and 750 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 15,800 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $685 and the price per buildable square foot is $651 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 November 13, 2014, for $9.6 million. The signatory for Nakajimaya Hotels Co. was Devin Yasuda. The signatory for Prana Equities was Shimon Katz. Katherine Cartagena, CEO of Prana Equities, signed the loan documents. The seller was in care of Relo Redac, a brokerage firm in New York that focuses on management on behalf of Japanese ownership.
Prana Equities is not affiliated with Prana Investments, a large multifamily investor which owns at least 99 buildings in New York City with about 3,600 units, according to PincusCo data.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Prana Equities had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Nakajimaya Hotels Co. 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 Yoichiro Suzuki, head officer and Yasuhiro Kuno, officer. The business entities are Relo Redac Inc and Nakajimaya Usa. The 15,035-square-foot property generated revenue of $664,697 or $44 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 111 East 38th Street parcel has frontage of 40 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,950 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Murray Hill Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.5 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 $300 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 block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 46 commercial properties representing 139,867 square feet of the 646,531 square feet. The largest owner is Solil Management, followed by HUBB NYC.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 37 percent of the 623,830 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 35 percent of the space.

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