Utility Workers Union pays $10M to Alfonso Kimche for office in Grand Central

Utility Workers Union of America through the entity 1-2 Strong Holding LLC paid $10 million to Alfonso Kimche through the entity 8 East 36th Street LLC for office building (O5) at 8 East 36th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on June 21, 2022 and was recorded on June 29, 2022. The property has 11,000 square feet of built space and 13,678 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 24,690 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $909 and the price per buildable square foot is $405 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 Alfonso Kimche was Alfonso Kimche. The signatory for Utility Workers Union of America was James Shillitto and William Smith. Alfonso Kimche is a principal with the lender North Hill Capital Management. James Shillitto and William Smith are officers of the UWUA.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Utility Workers Union of America had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Alfonso Kimche had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 8 East 36th Street parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,469 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 city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.8 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 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, the majority, or 74 percent of the 47.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 557,614 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 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 429,143 square feet of the 1,567,469 square feet. The largest owner is Cammeby’s International Group, followed by Stonehenge NYC and then Turret Equities. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 49 percent of the 1.6 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 46 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 8 East 36th Street, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, two were in new building development. There were two new building permit applications. The most recent of these two items was a filing on March 23, 2022 for a 124,092-square-foot R-2 building with 121 residential units at 12 East 37th Street.
One of those five items was a sale which Turret Equities bought the 60,300-square-foot, 44-unit rental (D6) on 213 Madison Avenue for $5.4 million from Infinity Collective on February 2, 2022.
Of those five items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $12 million. The most recent of the two was John H. Lee which borrowed $7 million from NewBank secured by the 28,000-square-foot, eight-unit office building (O6) on 384 5th Avenue on March 5, 2021.

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