Robert Saffayeh signs $11.75M contract with Catholic Church for Yorkville church, rectory

Developer Robert Saffayeh signed a contract on January 25, 2024, to pay $11.75 million to the Roman Catholic Church for two church buildings with the addresses 211 and 215 East 83rd Street in Yorkville, Manhattan. The broker was AckmanZiff Real Estate Group, according to the contract. The churches that are selling their properties are Roman Catholic Church of Saint Monica, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Stephen of Hungary.

211 East 83rd Street is the former rectory and 215 East 83rd Street is the former church building. The contract was disclosed in a court filing that is a required step when a religious group or nonprofit sells a significant asset.

Robert Saffayeh has purchased at least two other parcels from churches, in South Slope, Brooklyn, and in Park Slope.

Case LINK

Contract LINK

The property

The church property in Yorkville has 7,444 square feet of built space and 13,346 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 20,772 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,193 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.3 million.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Yorkville, The majority, or 61 percent of the 26.6 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Yorkville has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $443.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, Yorkville has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 29th highest in Manhattan. It had 880,524 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 eight of the 22 commercial properties representing 81,348 square feet of the 248,843 square feet. The largest owner is Alan Tauber, followed by Elie Fouerti and then Icon Realty Management. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 25,754 square feet. It is a nine-unit, 25,754 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kano Real Estate and filed by Noam Shemel with plans filed December 9, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 215 East 83 Street, PincusCo identified 16 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 16 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on December 5, 2023 for a 120,969-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 106 residential units at 250 East 83rd Street. Of those 16 items, 13 were sales above $5 million totaling $214.9 million. The most recent of the 13 was Elie Fouerti which bought the 4,745-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (K2) on 1477 3rd Avenue for $8.8 million from Kano Real Estate Investors on January 2, 2024. Of those 16 items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $150.7 million. The most recent of the two was Mark Zweibon in which borrowed $5.7 million from JPMorgan Chase secured by the 19,464-square-foot, 30-unit rental (D6) on 229 East 84th Street on August 3, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.