Buyer pays $10M for retail in Greenwich Village

UPDATED: An entity at the address of Sugar Hill Capital Partners, 44 West 8th Owner, LLC paid $10 million to Steven Grundwerg through the entity 44-46 West 8th LLC for the retail building (K1) at 44 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

A representative of Sugar Hill said in an email “Sugar Hill did not acquire this property. We have no further comment.” T30 Capital, a lending company that shares executives with Sugar Hill, is also at the same address.
Sugar Hill Capital Partners is an owner of a large portfolio of rent regulated buildings and has been an active seller.
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sugar Hill Capital Partners owned at least 81 commercial properties with 1,503,998 square feet, 1,593 residential units and a city-determined market value of $187.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $134.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, Citibank, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 56 percent of the 1,503,998 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with elevator properties next occupying 32 percent of the space. The bulk, or 69 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 31 percent of the space.
The deal closed on October 6, 2023 and was recorded on October 19, 2023. The property has 11,450 square feet of built space and 8,165 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 19,642 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $873 and the price per buildable square foot is $509 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 Steven P. Grundwerg was Steven P. Grundwerg. The signatory for Sugar Hill Capital Partners was Nicholas Edwards. The contract date was March 14, 2023.

The property

The retail building in Greenwich Village has 11,450 square feet of built space and 8,165 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 19,642 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 120 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,710 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-5 which allows for up to 3.4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.4 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 Greenwich Village, The bulk, or 24 percent of the 22.4 million square feet of commercial built space are specialty buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has 3.2 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Greenwich Village has 2.8 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 9th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 17 commercial properties representing 68,777 square feet of the 194,032 square feet. The largest owner is Time Equities, followed by Lori Buchbinder and then Eun Rae Jo.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 42,645 square feet. It is a 41-unit, 42,645 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Joseph Straus with plans filed August 16, 2018 and permitted October 5, 2021.

The majority, or 34 percent of the 194,032 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 27 percent of the space.

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