School of Visual Arts signs $13.6M loan for student housing in Gramercy

School of Visual Arts through the entity Chelgram Holding Corporation as borrower signed a refi loan with lender Lakeland Bank valued at $13.6 million for the hotel building (H8) at 17 Gramercy Park South in Gramercy, Manhattan. The building is the Gramercy Women’s Residence for SVA students.
The deal closed on August 18, 2023 and was recorded on August 24, 2023. The prior lender was TD Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $2.4 million.

The property has 18,458 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $737 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 School of Visual Arts was David Rhodes.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes David Rhodes, head officer and Anthony Rhodes, officer. The business entities include the School Of Visual Arts.

The property

The hotel building in Gramercy has 18,458 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 33 feet and is 134 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,433 square feet. The zoning is R7B which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Gramercy Park Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.5 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 not received any significant violations 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 Gramercy, The bulk, or 31 percent of the 11.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Gramercy has 1.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $445.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 28th highest in Manhattan. For development, Gramercy has 1.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 17th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 16 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 113,783 square feet of the 230,493 square feet. The largest owner is Stonehenge Nyc, followed by Michael Katz and then Duane Michals.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 61 percent of the 230,493 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space.

The borrower

The PincusCo database currently indicates that School Of Visual Arts owned at least two commercial properties in New York City with 128,821 square feet and a city-determined market value of $17.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are specialty properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

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