Sunlight Dev. signs $65M contract for NoMad office, plans 70-unit conversion

The Flushing-based builder Sunlight Development through the entity Madison 29 Holding LLC signed a $65 million contract to buy a landmarked NoMad office building at 95 Madison Avenue, at 29th Street, and plans to convert the 16-story high-rise into a mixed-use apartment building with 70 residential units, along with retail and office, bankruptcy and city Department of Buildings records show.

Sunlight Development signed the contract on February 23, 2024, as the property, long-owned by the Sklar family, plans to exit a bankruptcy proceeding initiated by Rita Sklar in March 2021. Rita Sklar and Lois Weinstein, sisters, battled over control of the property, which the family acquired in 1943. Weinstein died November 25, 2019, having no children or spouse. Michael Sklar and Sharan Sklar signed the purchase and sale agreement for the family, while Linzhong Zhuo signed for Sunlight Development.

Bankruptcy case 21-10529-shl LINK
PSA Contract 95 Madison pdf
State court case 653735/2019 LINK

The buyer’s broker was Jonathan Bodner’s Two Bins Capital, according to the purchase and sale agreement in the bankruptcy records, and there was no seller’s broker. The original purchase price was $62.8 million but that was increased to $65 million, according to the most recent bankruptcy filings.

Sunlight Development has been an active buyer, most recently paying $18.75 million for 49 Ash Street, $9.55 million for 78-01 Queens Boulevard and $13 million for 42-06 College Point Boulevard. 95 Madison Avenue is the most Sunlight Development has paid for a property in New York City, according to PincusCo data. The previous high was 138-28 Northern Boulevard, which cost $48 million.

Vicki Saali through the Sunlight Development Group entity Madison 29 Holding LLC submitted a major alteration application for the conversion of the commercial building at 95 Madison Avenue into a mixed-use building with 70 residential units, retail and office. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on May 30, 2024 under job number M01053870. It calls for the conversion of the 16-story building.

The project is described in the filing as: Converting existing 16-story high commercial use building to commercial-residential use building, interior renovation work on cellar, first floor to 16th floor and a new certificate of occupancy will be obtained.

City property records show the building had been owned for decades by members of the Sklar family through the entity Ninety-Five Madison Company, which in February 2024, borrowed $23 million from Goodman Capital. That loan came nearly three years after Rita Sklar, placed the building in bankruptcy protection March 2021, valuing the building between $50 million and $100 million and listing liabilities of $4.8 million.

95 Madison Avenue

The property

The office building in NoMad has 146,161 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 98 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 9,875 square feet. The zoning is C5-2 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is an Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $34 million. The most recent loan totaled $23 million and was provided by Goodman Capital on February 14, 2024.
The Emmet building, constructed in 1912, was designated a city landmark on March 6, 2018. The designation report states, in part, the building was, “Primarily a commercial structure leased to tenants for wholesale showrooms, it also contained Dr. Emmet’s elegant penthouse apartment designed to showcase his extensive library and collection of art and antiques. While it was common to have a janitor’s apartment at the top of a commercial building it was thought that this was the first time in New York City that such an elaborate residential space was incorporated into a skyscraper.”

Prior sales and revenue

The 146,161-square-foot property generated revenue of $6.7 million or $46 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $3,650 in ECB penalties, and $5,850 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In NoMad, The majority, or 66 percent of the 12.8 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, NoMad has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $165.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 31st highest in Manhattan. For development, NoMad has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 19 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 16 commercial properties representing 1,152,802 square feet of the 1,764,078 square feet. The largest owner is Feil Organization, followed by Gatsby Enterprises and then Global Holdings Management Group. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 169,210 square feet. It is a 123-unit, 169,210 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Rockefeller Group and filed by John Pierce with plans filed January 30, 2018 and permitted June 6, 2018.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Rita Sklar owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 146,161 square feet and a city-determined market value of $34 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 26 East 29 Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those four items was a sale which Kfo Property Nyc Gmbh bought one condo unit in the 2,610-square-foot, 123-unit condo building (R4) on 30 East 29th Street for $12.7 million from Rg-29th Street Owner I LLC on June 8, 2023. Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $50.8 million. The most recent of the three was Pan Am Equities in which borrowed $8.8 million from JPMorgan Chase secured by the 60,110-square-foot, 61-unit rental (D6) on 80 Madison Avenue on February 6, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.