Richman Group, Grand Street Guild, Catholic Archdiocese venture obtain $137M construction loan for LES project

Richman Group, Grand Street Guild, Roman Catholic Church, and Archdiocese of New York through the entity Ridge Street Associates LLC as borrower signed a new construction loan with lender NYC Housing Development Corporation through the entity Grand Street Northwest, Inc. valued at $137 million for the development site at 145 Broome Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, M01003420, for a 191-unit, 141,967 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Grand Street Guild and filed by Michael Comerford with plans filed April 30, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The deal closed on June 18, 2025 and was recorded on July 7, 2025. The property has 10,477 square feet of built space and 150,855 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 161,305 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $14,676 and the price per buildable square foot is $953 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 Richman Group , Grand Street Guild , Roman Catholic Church , and Archdiocese of New York was Kevin Nelan. Richman Group is identified as the Investor Member, according to a PincusCo analysis of page 5 of this document.

The property

The specialty building in Lower East Side has 10,477 square feet of built space and 150,855 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 161,305 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 159 feet and is 147 feet deep with a total lot size of 26,795 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.6 million. The most recent loan totaled $52.8 million and was provided by ORIX Real Estate on April 8, 2022.

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

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 28, 2013.

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 $171.8 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 671,257 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 nine commercial properties representing 490,181 square feet of the 517,531 square feet. The two identified owners are Grand Street Guild and NYC Economic Development.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 912,959 square feet. The largest is a 232-unit, 770,992 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Grand Street Guild and filed by Michael Comerford with plans filed August 12, 2019 and permitted June 16, 2022. The second largest is a 191-unit, 141,967 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Grand Street Guild and filed by Michael Comerford with plans filed April 30, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 95 percent of the 517,531 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 5 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Roman Catholic Church owned at least 151 commercial properties with 886 residential units in New York City with 5,049,941 square feet and a city-determined market value of $978.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 5,049,941 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with M1 properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. The bulk, or 44 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 21 percent of the space.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Grand Street Guild owned at least four commercial properties with 800 residential units in New York City with 732,075 square feet and a city-determined market value of $124.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $223.3 million in debt, borrowed from Lument and ORIX Real Estate. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 732,075 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with D4 properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Richman Group owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 1,545 square feet and a city-determined market value of $616,000. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $120.1 million in debt, borrowed from NYC Housing Development Corporation. The portfolio consists of at least a single V1 property. It is located in Bronx.

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