Westover Companies pays $94.5M to Black Spruce for 13-building Chelsea portfolio

Pennsylvania-based Westover Companies, led by Gunti Weissenberger, paid $94.5 million to Joshua Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management for a 13-building multifamily portfolio located in Chelsea, Manhattan.

The signatory for Black Spruce Management was Joshua Gotlib. The signatory for Westover Companies was Guntram J. Weissenberger Jr. The contract date was September 20, 2024. Marcus & Millichap brokers including Joe Koicim brokered the sale, which totaled 13 buildings and $94.5 million, the Commercial Observer reported.

As part of the purchase, Westover Companies assumed a $75 million loan securitized into CCUBS Commercial Mortgage Trust 2017-C1.

The first transaction in order of sale price was Westover Companies through the entity Gw 416 West 23rd Street, LLC, which paid $21.1 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 416 W 23rd Street Partners 1 LLC for the 24-unit residential elevator building (D1) at 416 West 23rd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 18,079 square feet of built space and 1,053 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 19,156 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,168 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,103 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 full list off properties is 416 West 23rd Street, 454 West 22nd Street, 307 West 29th Street, 313 West 29th Stree,t 466 West 23rd Street, 326 West 23rd Street, 456 West 22nd Street, 309 West 29th Street, 310 West 22nd Street, 348 West 21st Street, 339 West 19th Street, 341 West 19th Street and 431 West 22nd Street.

The second: Westover Companies through the entity Gw 454 West 22nd Street, LLC paid $13.9 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 454 W 22nd Street Partners 2 LLC for the 16-unit residential walkup building (C4) at 454 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 9,480 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,461 per the PincusCo analysis.

The third: Westover Companies through the entity Gw 307 West 29th Street, LLC paid $8.2 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 307 W 29th Street Partners 1 LLC for the 18-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 307 West 29th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 7,260 square feet of built space and 1,488 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,756 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,131 and the price per buildable square foot is $938 per the PincusCo analysis.

The fourth: Westover Companies through the entity Gw 313 West 29th Street, LLC paid $6.9 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 313 W 29th Street Partners 1 LLC for the 10-unit residential walkup building (C5) at 313 West 29th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 5,036 square feet of built space and 3,648 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,688 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,379 and the price per buildable square foot is $799 per the PincusCo analysis.

The fifth: Westover Companies through the entity Gw 466 West 23rd Street, LLC paid $6.5 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 466 W 23rd Street Partners 1 LLC for the 10-unit residential walkup building (C1) at 466 West 23rd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 6,135 square feet of built space and 391 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 6,519 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,057 and the price per buildable square foot is $995 per the PincusCo analysis.

The sixth: Westover Companies through the entity Gw 326 West 23rd Street, LLC paid $6.4 million to Black Spruce Management through the entity 326 W 23rd Street Partners 1 LLC for the eight-unit residential walkup building (C7) at 326 West 23rd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The deal closed on December 19, 2024 and was recorded on December 27, 2024. The property has 5,698 square feet of built space and 2,932 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,624 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,124 and the price per buildable square foot is $742 per the PincusCo analysis.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Westover Companies had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Black Spruce Management purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $402.6 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $54.5 million over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Joshua Gotlib, head officer and Phil Froom, agent. The business entities are Nieuw Amsterdam Property Management and 416 W 23rd Street Partners 1, Llc.

The property

The residential elevator building with 24 residential units in Chelsea has 18,079 square feet of built space and 1,053 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 19,156 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 48 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,789 square feet. The zoning is C1-6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 4 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6.1 million. The property has 4 rent regulated units according to city tax records from 2023.

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 20 housing violations and $340 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 $1 million on this tax lot.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 15 commercial properties representing 119,803 square feet of the 160,222 square feet. The largest owner is Friedman Management, followed by Black Spruce Management and then Eugene Mendlowits.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 56 percent of the 160,222 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 33 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Black Spruce Management owned at least 167 commercial properties with 5,172 residential units in New York City with 5,343,457 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.2 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $587.5 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, Goldman Sachs, and New York Community Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 74 percent of the 5,343,457 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 25 percent of the space. The bulk, or 86 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 9 percent of the space.

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