Skyline Developers to pay University Club to build 10-feet higher in Midtown West

Skyline Developers through the entity 10 W 55 LLC signed a memorandum of contract to pay an undisclosed amount to the University Club to allow Skyline to build 10 feet higher on a parcel adjoining the club on West 55th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan. While the sale price was not disclosed, Skyline has given the club two promissory notes totaling $2.15 million.
The memorandum was signed on December 13, 2021 and was recorded on January 14, 2022.
Skyline filed (121208095) plans for a 96-unit, 152,689 square-foot residential R-2 building on May 8, 2020.

The signatory for University Club was David Lifson and Martin L. Budd. The signatory for Skyline Developers was Orin Wilf.
Prior to this transaction, the buyer Skyline Developers had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the past 24 months.

This is a memorandum of contract for a payment that will amend a 1917 restrictive covenant. The amendment will allow developer Skyline to increase the height to 75 feet from a current maximum height of 65 feet on a parcel immediately west of the University Club’s 55th Street frontage. Skyline plans a development with the address 18 West 55th Street. The original restriction limited the height of any building, at 10 West 55th Street, to 65 feet. With the payment, the height will be lifted to 75 feet and some windows along the University Club building must be sealed. The contract includes two promissory notes Skyline will give to the University Club totaling $2.15 million that will be held until the full sale price is paid. The sale price was not disclosed in the memorandum.
In Midtown West, the majority, or 69 percent of the 82.2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the 3rd most active neighborhood in the city. It had 8.5 million square feet of commercial construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
On the tax block, the majority, or 40 percent of the 1.8 million square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 39 percent of the space.
Within a 400-foot radius of 10 West 55th Street, Pincusco identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those eight items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were one permit applications with a total initial cost of $286,000 and one permit with a total initial cost of $2 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on December 7, 2021 for a 263,176-square-foot B building with 0 residential units at 711 5th Avenue.
One of those eight items was a sale which Dreamaps Estate Ny LLC bought the 14,680-square-foot, 12-unit rental (D7) on 45 West 55th Street for $12.2 million from Sierra Real Estate on June 14, 2021.
Of those eight items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $658 million. The most recent of the five was Andrew Davidoff which borrowed $5.8 million from BCB Community Bank secured by the 8,000-square-foot, five-unit office building (O5) on 44 West 55th Street on October 18, 2021.

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