ZHL Group pays $4.2M for dev site in Lenox Hill

ZHL Group through the entity 237 East 77 LLC paid $4.2 million to Craig Filipacchi through the entity East Seven Seven, LLC for the development building (V1) at 235 East 77th Street in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on March 27, 2025 and was recorded on March 28, 2025. The property has zero square feet of built space and 10,216 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 10,216 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $N/A and the price per buildable square foot is $406 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 January 20, 2010, for $2.7 million. The signatory for Craig Filipacchi was Keith Betensky. The signatory for ZHL Group was Yevgeniy Lvovskiy. The contract date was January 20, 2025. Keith Betensky is an attorney.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer ZHL Group purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $38.1 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Craig Filipacchi had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $5 million over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,554 square feet. 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 $1.1 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 $6,250 in ECB penalties and $8,430 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 neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has 2.7 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.1 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 14 of the 21 commercial properties representing 202,498 square feet of the 264,383 square feet. The largest owner is Naftali Group, followed by Sky Management and then S.W. Management.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 250,723 square feet. It is a 55-unit, 250,723 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Michael Witek with plans filed September 8, 2022 and permitted August 24, 2023.

The majority, or 76 percent of the 264,383 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Zhl Group owned at least 12 commercial properties with 108 residential units in New York City with 84,011 square feet and a city-determined market value of $24 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 49 percent of the 84,011 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 41 percent of the space. The bulk, or 46 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 43 percent of the space.

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