SME Capital Ventures acquires office building in Chelsea via $46.2M bankruptcy transaction

SME Capital Ventures through the entity 541 W 21 Capital LLC paid $46.2 million through a bankruptcy to Erno Bodek through the entity Alan Nisselson, Solely As Chapter 7 Trustee for the office building (O6) at 541 West 21st Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. SME Capital Ventures was previously a debt holder on the property.
The deal closed on December 29, 2025 and was recorded on January 15, 2026. The property has 55,141 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $837 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 Erno Bodek was Alan Nisselson. The signatory for SME Capital Ventures was Eran Silverberg . The contract date was October 28, 2025.

This was a chapter 7 bankruptcy, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York No. 23-10210-lgb.  Erno Bodek, Lazzar Bodek and Rachel Bodek, who owned the Frame building, put the property in bankruptcy. The Bodeks had asserted the building was worth $80 million. SME which provided a $4.75 million mezzanine loan that court filings say has been in default since September 2022. G4 Capital Partners had provided a $50.4 million construction loan to the Bodeks.

To finance this bankruptcy acquisition, SME Capital Ventures borrowed $25 million from G4 Capital Partners.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer SME Capital Ventures had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Erno Bodek had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The office building in Chelsea has 55,141 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,466 square feet. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $23.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and one bankruptcy over the past three years. The suit was a $2.4 million money judgment concerning a commission filed on March 27, 2025, by Cushman & Wakefield against SME Capital Ventures. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $10,000 in ECB penalties and $10,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there was one active major alteration construction project, 121204990, for a 55,093 square-foot office (B) building. The project was submitted by Erno Bodek with plans filed March 19, 2019 and permitted February 20, 2020.

The neighborhood

In Chelsea, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. It had 3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 14 commercial properties representing 270,648 square feet of the 347,360 square feet. The largest owner is Michael Weinstein, followed by Erno Bodek and then Fortinet.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 45 percent of the 347,360 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The former owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Erno Bodek owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 65,307 square feet and a city-determined market value of $21 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $56 million in debt, borrowed from G4 Capital Partners. The portfolio consists of at least a single industrial property. It is located in Manhattan.

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