Westover pays $56.8M to Wafra for 85-unit East Village rental, down from $98M in 2015

The national Pennsylvania-based Westover Companies through the entity Westover NYC Associates, LLC paid $56.8 million to Wafra Inc. through the entity Wafra Invest Nathaniel, L.P. for the 85-unit rental building at 84 Third Avenue in East Village, Manhattan.
This is the first New York City purchase for Westover, which according to its website owns nearly 12,000 residential units in more than 60 developments in the Philadelphia suburbs, South Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.
The property is controlled through a ground lease which Joy Construction signed in 2011 with a company affiliated with a Virginia-based company called Belvedere Management Co. The property is owned through a commercial condominium structure composed of two condo units. The transaction included both condo units, which control the entire property.
The deal closed on October 28, 2022 and was recorded on November 4, 2022. The two condo properties have 111,588 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $508 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 Wafra Inc. was company executive David Hamm. The signatory for Westover Companies was company president Guntram Weissenberger Jr.

A fund managed by Wafra, also known as Wafra Investment Advisory Group bought The Nathaniel from a joint venture affiliate of Joy Construction for $98.25 million in early 2015. Westover Companies was founded in 1965 according to its website. The fee is owned by Allen Greene. There is a 99-year ground lease, which started April 27, 2011. The lessee has no right to extend, expand, renew or purchase the property, according to the 2011 memorandum of lease document.

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 Wafra Inc. purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $388 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The property has a 421a exemption that started in 2016 and expires in 2026. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $27.5 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the two buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The block

On the tax block of 84 3rd Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 17 commercial properties representing 382,605 square feet of the 782,060 square feet. The largest owner is Lightstone Group, followed by New York University and then Mallory Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 43 percent of the 666,815 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space.

 

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