Walter Baker acquires UWS townhouse through $11.75M foreclosure

The signatory Walter Baker through the entity 5w73rd LLC acquired the specialty building (W4) at 5 West 73rd Street in Upper West Side, Manhattan. The former owner was the American Society for Psychical Research, which lost the property in a $11.75 million foreclosure, through index number 850211/2020. Thomas Kleinberger was the referee.

The deal closed on June 25, 2024 and was recorded on July 10, 2024. The property has 7,599 square feet of built space and 572 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,172 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The $11.75 million loan price per built square foot is $1,546 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,437 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 the seller was Thomas Kleinberger. The signatory for the buyer was Walter Baker. The contract date was February 17, 2023.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Walter Baker had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller American Society for Psychical Research had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty building in Upper West Side has 7,599 square feet of built space and 572 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,172 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,043 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Central Park West-West 73rd – 74th Street Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Upper West Side, The majority, or 59 percent of the 52.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Upper West Side has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Upper West Side has 2.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. It had 3 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 19 of the 29 commercial properties representing 423,610 square feet of the 517,476 square feet. The largest owner is Philip Roitman, followed by Morad Kalimian and then Manocherian Brothers.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 70 percent of the 517,476 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 17 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link