Witnick Real Estate pays $10.2M for 47-unit walkup in Chelsea

Witnick Real Estate Partners through the entity 206 W 21st Partners LLC paid $10.2 million to Paul Kampa through the entity Rhumb W 21 LLC for midblock 47-unit residential walkup building at 206 West 21st Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.

The deal closed on February 24, 2022 and was recorded on March 9, 2022. The property has 11,864 square feet of built space and 7,920 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 19,800 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $859 and the price per buildable square foot is $515 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 Paul Kampa was Paul Kampa. The signatory for Witnick Real Estate Partners was Isaac Abraham. Paul Kampa is the owner of Freeport Self Storage.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has records that the buyer Witnick Real Estate Partners purchased nine properties in eight transactions for a total of $70.4 million and sold two properties in two transactions for a total of $8.7 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Paul Kampa had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development included Paul Kampa, head officer and Dejan Mladenovic, site manager. The business entity was Rhumb W 21, Llc. The 11,864-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.1 million or $89 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The 206 West 21st Street parcel has frontage of 47 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 4,950 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was not involved in any lawsuits or bankruptcies in the past years. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $250 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 $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Chelsea, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Chelsea has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Chelsea has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 2 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other residential walkup buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 39 commercial properties representing 92,815 square feet of the 339,702 square feet. The largest owner is Larry Tauber, followed by Felix Bernardo and then Stellar Management. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 44 percent of the 484,770 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Witnick Real Estate Partners owned at least 19 commercial properties with 210,581 square feet and a city-determined market value of $57.5 million. The database is not complete, and Witnick has additional properties. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $54 million in debt, with top three lenders as Dime Community Bank, Signature Bank, and Sterling National Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 80 percent of the 210,581 square feet of built space are residential walkup properties, with residential elevator properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 63 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 37 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 206 West 21st Street, Pincusco identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those six items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on February 10, 2021 for the $1.2 million renovation of 7,563-square-foot R-2 building with six residential units at 231 West 20th Street.
Of those six items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $24.2 million. The most recent of the two was Twin Oaks Equity Partners which bought the 61,232-square-foot, 29-unit retail building (K9) on 191 7th Avenue for $17.5 million from Metro Management Development on October 25, 2021.
Of those six items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $31.6 million. The most recent of the three was Twin Oaks Equity Partners which borrowed $13.8 million from Signature Bank secured by the 61,232-square-foot, 29-unit retail building (K9) on 191 7th Avenue on October 25, 2021.

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