Trans World Equities pays $22M for retail facing Union Square

Trans World Equities through the entity Usw Ventures LLC paid $22 million to Susan Shaw through the entity I.C. Read LLC for retail building at 857 Broadway just north of Union Square in the Flatiron District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 29, 2022 and was recorded on May 16, 2022. The property has 11,636 square feet of built space and 17,531 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 29,170 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,890 and the price per buildable square foot is $754 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 Susan Shaw was Susan Shaw. The signatory for Trans World Equities was Dan Forrester.

Prior sales and revenue

The 11,636-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.3 million or $112 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 857 Broadway parcel has frontage of 27 feet and is 116 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,917 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4 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 in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.6 million.

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 $500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Flatiron District, the majority, or 62 percent of the 27.7 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.6 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Flatiron District has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 583,415 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 36 commercial properties representing 265,722 square feet of the 908,371 square feet. The largest owner is Eretz Group, followed by Related Companies and then Bijan Nassi. There is one active new building construction project totaling 38,263 square feet. It is a 38,263-square-foot B building developed by Ken Rosenblum with plans filed April 27, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 41 percent of the 1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Transworld Equities owned at least one commercial property with 5,080 square feet and a city-determined market value of $4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single mixed-use property. It is located in Manhattan.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 857 Broadway, Pincusco identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $1.9 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on February 28, 2022 for a 50,800-square-foot R-2 building with 17 residential units at 33 Union Square West.
Of those five items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $63.8 million. The most recent of the three was Related Companies which borrowed $35.8 million from Bank of America secured by the 120,822-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (K4) on 33 East 17th Street on March 25, 2022.

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