Shimshon Grunstein pays $5M for 86-unit dev site in East Harlem

Shimshon Grunstein through the entity 442 Commons LLC paid $5 million to the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Paul and Holy Rosary for the specialty building (M1) at 442 East 119th Street and 444 East 119th Street, in East Harlem, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development. The purchase was in two transactions.

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project, M01335998, for a 86-unit, 65,931 square-foot residential (R-2) building. The project was submitted by Shimshon Grunstein with plans filed December 19, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.
The deal closed on April 20, 2026 and was recorded on April 23, 2026. The property has 11,739 square feet of built space and 20,830 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 32,547 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $340 and the price per buildable square foot is $122 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 Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church of Saint Paul and Holy Rosary was Alejandro Garcia. The signatory for Shimshon Grunstein was Shimshon Grunstein. The contract date was April 16, 2025.

PincusCo reported in 2024 that the original contract vendee was Sharon Kahen’s Kahen Properties through the entity Kahen Development Group LLC, which signed a contract to pay $5 million to the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Paul and Holy Rosary for the church building at 442 East 119th Street and an adjacent building at 444 East 119th Street. The church is not landmarked, according to a review of city records.

The original purchase and sale agreement, dated June 28, 2024, was disclosed in a court filing that is required when a nonprofit or religious group seeks to sell significant assets. The contract identified the broker as Ariel Property Advisors. The agreement includes an ambiguous notice that the buyer intends to demolish one or both of the the existing buildings but does not specify which one or both, “Purchaser intends, following the Closing, to demolish the existing Building and perform ground-up construction.”

According to the Ariel Property Advisors’ property listing, the two parcels provide 133 feet of frontage along the south side of East 119th Street, and along with 4,930 buildable square feet of air rights transferred from 446 East 119th Street, the R7B zoning provides approximately 45,046 buildable square feet as-of-right. “Though the existing structures need extensive renovation, its 18,239 square feet may present a unique owner-user opportunity,” the listing said.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Shimshon Grunstein had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Roman Catholic Church had not purchased any other properties and sold 30 properties in 17 transactions for a total of $394.4 million over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in East Harlem has 11,739 square feet of built space and 20,830 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 32,547 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 107 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,849 square feet. The zoning is R7B which allows for up to 3 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in three lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $5 million judgment concerning a leave to sell filed on August 23, 2024, by Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church of St. Paul and Holy Rosary against Kahen Properties. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

The neighborhood

In East Harlem, The majority, or 51 percent of the 52.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, East Harlem has 1.4 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $478.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 24th highest in Manhattan. For development, East Harlem has 2.3 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 24 commercial properties representing 50,332 square feet of the 146,354 square feet. The largest owner is Mack Real Estate Group, followed by El Barrio’S Operation Fightback and then George Aryeh.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 65,931 square feet. It is a 86-unit, 65,931 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Shimshon Grunstein and filed by Shimshon Grunstein with plans filed December 19, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 84 percent of the 146,354 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 6 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Roman Catholic Church owned at least 152 commercial properties with 886 residential units in New York City with 5,690,800 square feet and a city-determined market value of $2.3 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 37 percent of the 5,690,800 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with M1 properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 45 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 23 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Shimshon Grunstein owned at least 12 commercial properties with 212 residential units in New York City with 117,642 square feet and a city-determined market value of $147 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $153.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as NorthEast Community Bank, Citibank, and Spruce Capital respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 67 percent of the 117,642 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with M4 properties next occupying 7 percent of the space.

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