Republic of Serbia pays $15M for church in Grand Central

The Republic of Serbia paid $15 million to New York New Church and New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the City of New York through the entity New York New Church for the specialty building (M1) at 124 East 35th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
PincusCo reported on the contract last year.
The deal closed on April 3, 2023 and was recorded on April 6, 2023. The property has 20,215 square feet of built space and 10,278 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,456 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $742 and the price per buildable square foot is $492 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 New York New Church also known as the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the City of New York was Anna Rich Martinian. A history of the church and building is here.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Republic of Serbia purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $7.9 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller New York New Church had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in Grand Central has 20,215 square feet of built space and 10,278 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 30,456 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 77 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,614 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 $4.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one court filing and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The court filing was a $15 million petition concerning a leave to sell filed on October 25, 2022, by New York New Church with the Republic of Serbia as buyer.

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 Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 43.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has 2.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. For development, Grand Central has 2.5 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 15 commercial properties representing 260,781 square feet of the 485,788 square feet. The largest owner is Zucker Organization, followed by Yeshiva University and then Vincent Cuttita.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 485,788 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Republic Of Serbia owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 7,491 square feet and a city-determined market value of None. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single P5 property. It is located in Manhattan.

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