Quynh Nguyen pays $5.1M to R.A. Cohen & Associates for mixed-use in Kips Bay

Quynh T. Nguyen through the entity K.E.P. Truong LLC paid $5.1 million to R.A. Cohen & Associates through the entity 129 E 29 St Associates, LLC for the six-unit mixed-use building (S5) at 137 Lexington Avenue in Kips Bay, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 14, 2023 and was recorded on October 3, 2023. The property has 5,708 square feet of built space and 2,862 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,572 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $893 and the price per buildable square foot is $594 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 R.A. Cohen & Associates was Douglas Barasch. The signatory for Quynh T. Nguyen was Quynh T. Nguyen. The contract date was May 22, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Quynh T. Nguyen had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller R.A. Cohen & Associates purchased seven properties in three transactions for a total of $19.5 million and sold three properties in three transactions for a total of $21.4 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Lynne Barasch, head officer and Douglas Barasch, officer. The business entities are RA Cohen & Associates, Inc. and 129 E 29 St Associates LLC.

The property

The mixed-use building with 6 residential units in Kips Bay has 5,708 square feet of built space and 2,862 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,572 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 16 feet and is 85 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,424 square feet. The zoning is C6-2A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.1 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 received two DOB violations, $50,000 in ECB penalties, 11 housing violations, and $800 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Kips Bay, The bulk, or 50 percent of the 21.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space. In sales, Kips Bay has 2.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $877.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. For development, Kips Bay has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 587,300 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 15 of the 38 commercial properties representing 432,234 square feet of the 638,023 square feet. The largest owner is Scharfman Organization, followed by Richard Thypin and then Regina Ajodan.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 77,459 square feet. The largest is a 57-unit, 63,933 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Evenhar Development and filed by Oren Evenhar with plans filed November 3, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 40-unit, 13,526 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Navnit Kumar with plans filed July 17, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 57 percent of the 638,023 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that R.A. Cohen & Associates owned at least 11 commercial properties with 187 residential units in New York City with 150,848 square feet and a city-determined market value of $56.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $44.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as JPMorgan Chase, First National Bank of Long Island, and Dime Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 54 percent of the 150,848 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 38 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 3 percent of the space.

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