Thomas Fok pays $23.8M to Empire Capital for 20-unit LES rental

Thomas Fok and Derrick Fok through the entity Grand Henkade, LLC paid $23.8 million to Empire Capital Holdings through the entity Empire 326 Grand LLC for the 20-unit residential elevator building (D6) at 324 Grand Street in Lower East Side, Manhattan.
The deal closed on January 20, 2023 and was recorded on February 6, 2023. The property has 24,410 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $972 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 seller bought the property on February 1, 2017, for $21.2 million. The signatory for Empire Capital Holdings was Abraham Khalili. The signatory for Thomas Fok and Derrick Fok was Derrick Fok. The buyers own at least six buildings in New York City, with three in Greenwich Village and three in Chelsea, and the buyers have an address in a building they own at 125 West 29th Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Thomas Fok had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Empire Capital Holdings purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $392 million and sold three properties in two transactions for a total of $18.6 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Aaron Bergman, head officer and Martin Mourino, site manager. The business entity is Empire 326 Grand Llc. The 24,410-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.2 million or $50 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 324 Grand Street parcel has frontage of 51 feet and is 87 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,428 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C4-4A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 4 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.2 million.The most recent loan totaled $16.2 million and was provided by LoanCore Capital on March 9, 2020.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, one housing violation, and $6,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 31, 2016. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 26 commercial properties representing 355,704 square feet of the 489,327 square feet. The largest owner is Sheryl Hempel, followed by Sanglimchi and then Nelson Wong.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 11,125 square feet. It is a 12-unit, 11,125-square-foot R-2 building developed by Daniel Wise with plans filed September 1, 2017 and permitted October 13, 2022.

The majority, or 66 percent of the 479,536 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Empire Capital Holdings owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 707,684 square feet and a city-determined market value of $199.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $46.8 million in debt, with top three lenders as LoanCore Capital, Thorofare Capital, and Hakimian Partners respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 92 percent of the 707,684 square feet of built space are office properties, with hotel properties next occupying 4 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 4 percent of the space.

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