Westbridge Realty Group pays $5M for ground lease controlling dev site in Harlem

Westbridge Realty Group through the entity 310 Jemwest LLC paid $5 million to the Kian family through the entity World Tower Parking Garage LLC for the ground lease controlling the development site at 310 West 144th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development.
On the lot, there is one active major alteration construction project, M01118538, for a 48-unit, 16,560 square-foot R-2 building. The project was submitted by Steven Westreich with plans filed October 1, 2024 and permitted January 29, 2025.
The deal closed on November 1, 2024 and was recorded on February 21, 2025. The property has 18,354 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $272 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 seller bought the property on October 11, 2005, for $2.2 million. The signatory for Megan Kian and Ryan Kian was Megan Kian and Ryan Kian. The signatory for Westbridge Realty Group was Steven Westreich and Leah Waldman . The contract date was September 19, 2024. The lease signing was Sept. 19, 2024, and the lease commencement was November 1, 2024. The term is 99 years.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Westbridge Realty Group had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Megan Kian had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 18,354-square-foot property generated revenue of $402,870 or $22 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The industrial building in Harlem has 18,354 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,996 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.6 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 received $2,500 in ECB penalties and $2,500 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Harlem, The bulk, or 43 percent of the 81.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Harlem has 3.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $827 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. For development, Harlem has 2.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 14 commercial properties representing 56,780 square feet of the 136,420 square feet. The largest owner is Doron Greenberg, followed by NY Residential Works and then Lemle & Wolff.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 136,420 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

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