Vanbarton Group pays $3M to Marble Collegiate Church for dev parcel in NoMad

Vanbarton Group through the entity Hfz Kik 30th Street Owner LLC paid $3 million to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of The City of New York known as the Marble Collegiate Church for the development parcel (V1) at 3 West 29th Street in NoMad, Manhattan.
The deal closed on September 13, 2022 and was recorded on October 4, 2022.
The signatory for Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of The City of New York and Marble Collegiate Church was Stan J. Sloan. The signatory for Vanbarton Group was Justin B. Kleinman. This is a piece of the former HFZ Capital Group development site which Ziel Feldman lost to lenders and Vanbarton acquired. This is part of a settlement agreement 155359/2022 between the parties through a court required signoff of the sale of religious property.  Vanbarton paid an additional $5,.07 million to the church recorded as part of a confirmation of zoning rights the development parcel.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Vanbarton Group purchased 10 properties in two transactions for a total of $234.5 million and sold eight properties in four transactions for a total of $59.6 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of The City of New York had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 3 West 29th Street parcel has frontage of 74 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,357 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.7 million.The most recent loan totaled $89.4 million and was provided by Otera Capital on August 26, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in four lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $100 million money judgment filed on September 9, 2021, by U.S. Immigration Fund against Vanbarton Group and Marble Collegiate Church. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $7,500 in ECB penalties and $14,900 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a 373,990 square-foot B building. The project was developed by Anthony Marrone with plans filed September 19, 2017 and it has not been permitted yet.

The neighborhood

In NoMad, the majority, or 63 percent of the 13.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, NoMad has 1.9 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $658.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 23rd highest in Manhattan. For development, NoMad has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 628,160 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 27 commercial properties representing 457,467 square feet of the 903,754 square feet. The largest owner is Lam Group, followed by Vanbarton Group and then Hyang Ja Lee.
On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 750,963 square feet. The largest is a N/A-unit, 373,990-square-foot B building developed by Anthony Marrone with plans filed September 19, 2017 and permitted November 19, 2018. The second largest is a 401-unit, 299,154-square-foot R-1 building developed by John Lam with plans filed November 7, 2014 and permitted August 19, 2015.

The majority, or 58 percent of the 881,944 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vanbarton Group owned at least 51 commercial properties in New York City with 2,900,518 square feet and a city-determined market value of $978.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.4 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Blackstone Group, Blackstone Mortgage Trust, and Brookfield Asset Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 77 percent of the 2,900,518 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 13 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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