Toll Brothers pays $53M to Benny Barmapov for dev site in Chelsea

Toll Brothers through the entity Harlow On 10th, LLC paid $53 million to Benny Barmapov through the entity Barma LLC for the development building (V1) at 118 Tenth Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development. The late real estate investor Brandon Miller, of Real Estate Equities Corp., formerly controlled the site through a ground lease. Following his death in 2024, the lease was in default and was terminated, allowing Barmapov to sell the fee free and clear of the ground lease.

Crain’s New York reported on this transaction on February 23, 2026.
The deal closed on February 18, 2026 and was recorded on February 24, 2026. The property has zero square feet of built space and 91,533 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 91,533 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $579 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 Benny Barmapov was Benny Barmapov. The signatory for Toll Brothers was David Von Spreckelsen. The contract date was June 11, 2025.

This property was subject to a bankruptcy filing by an entity formerly controlled by Miller, who took his own life, according to news reports. The stakeholder, Douglas Teitelbaum as manager of an entity called DIA Family Holdings LLC, made the filing in the Southern District of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on July 11, 2024, through number 24-11218-pb. The initial chapter 11 filing has few details. (118 10th Avenue pdf) Miller died on July 3, 2024, according to news reports.

Teitelbaum soon withdrew the bankruptcy case, writing, “The Debtor’s primary asset appears to be its rights under the Ground Lease which is believed to provide for above-market rental rents and the Debtor is believed to be in substantial default/arrears thereunder. As such, it is unlikely that any assets of consequential value would be available for a chapter 7 trustee to liquidate. ”

In a case Barmapov filed against the ground lease entity, LT-317389-24/NY, alleging it was holding over on the land despite the ground lease being terminated, the lease was declared terminated: “WHEREAS, the Bankruptcy Case was dismissed pursuant to an order dated October 3, 2024 issued by Honorable Philip Bentley; WHEREAS, the Lease and Respondent’s tenancy of the Premises was terminated as of September 17, 2024 (the “Termination Date”) for the reasons set forth in the Five-Day Notice of Termination dated September 17, 2024…”

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Toll Brothers had purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $17.1 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Benny Barmapov had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 124 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,172 square feet. The zoning is C6-3 which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The bankruptcy was filed on July 11, 2024, by Brandon Miller and Douglas Teitelbaum citing assets of $13.2 million. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there are two active new building construction projects and major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million, totaling 166,991 square feet. The largest, 123509480, is a new building project for a 86,615 square-foot B building submitted by Real Estate Equities Corporation and filed by Brandon Klein with plans filed December 12, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest, 121206738, is a new building project for a 80,376 square-foot B building submitted by Michael Kirchman with plans filed December 6, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

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 8th 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 1.9 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 13th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.9 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 four of the nine commercial properties representing 280,509 square feet of the 342,862 square feet. The largest owner is New York City Housing Authority, followed by Network Capital Funding and then Joseph Davoudzadeh.
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 166,991 square feet. The largest is a 86,615 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Real Estate Equities Corporation and filed by Brandon Klein with plans filed December 12, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 80,376 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Michael Kirchman with plans filed December 6, 2019 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 74 percent of the 342,862 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 10 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Toll Brothers owned at least three commercial properties with 81 residential units in New York City with 43,194 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $76.6 million in debt, borrowed from Bank of New York Mellon. Within the portfolio, all identified are hotel properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

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