Prana pays $7.8M for 55-unit elevator building in Washington Heights

Prana Investments through the entity 555 W. 173rd St. LLC paid $7.8 million to Amy Hui through the entity Tdk Realty, LLC for 55-unit residential elevator building at 160 Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 16, 2022 and was recorded on March 31, 2022.

The property has 45,426 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $171 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 Amy Hui was Michael Mirotznik. The signatory for Prana Investments was Richard Herman. Richard Herman is the vice president of transactions and asset management at Prana Investments. Amy Hui signed on a previous mortgage for the property.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Prana Investments purchased 19 properties in 16 transactions for a total of $104.8 million and sold one properties in one transactions for a total of $11.5 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Amy Hui 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 Cebollero, head officer and Royce Douglas, site manager. The business entity is Tdk Realty, Llc. The 45,426-square-foot property generated revenue of $785,376 or $17 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 160 Audubon Avenue parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,000 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received six housing violations and $700 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 Washington Heights, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 78 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with residential walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Washington Heights has 1.3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $366.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. For development, Washington Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. It had 1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the 26 commercial properties representing 86,534 square feet of the 405,077 square feet. The largest owner is Shamco Management, followed by John Milevoi and then New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 46 percent of the 453,649 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 38 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Prana Investments owned at least 68 commercial properties with 2,463,113 square feet and a city-determined market value of $180.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $128.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, ConnectOne Bank, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 53 percent of the 2,463,113 square feet of built space are residential walkup properties, with residential elevator properties next occupying 47 percent of the space. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Bronx, with Manhattan next at 25 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 160 Audubon Avenue, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those three items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on March 18, 2022 for a 11,718-square-foot R-2 building with 14 residential units at 1259 St Nicholas Avenue.
Of those three items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $12.9 million. The most recent of the two was Shamco Management which borrowed $7.7 million from New York Community Bank secured by the 31,860-square-foot, 42-unit rental (D1) on 560 West 174th Street on July 20, 2021.

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