East 42nd Street office building to be converted – Business News
There’s a main new participant, and a new plan, for 300 E. 42nd St., an 18-story, 235,000 square-foot office and retail building which investor David Werner was reported to be shopping for at a deep low cost.
Although not but posted in public data, the acquisition closed final Wednesday for $52 million, as anticipated — much less than half the property’s final sale price in 2019.
But the twist is that Werner is flipping most of the building for a partial residential conversion, whereas preserving its priceless 7,300 sq. toes of retail for himself.
David Werner’s buy of 300 E. 42nd St., above, closed final Wednesday. Steve Cuozzo
The conversion project will first come to life with a $45 million, pre-development acquisition loan from Ran Eliasaf’s personal equity firm Northwind Group. The loan additionally closed final week. A construction loan is probably going 9 months to a 12 months away.
Northwind a few years in the past supplied a $313 million construction loan to revive the then-stalled 125 Greenwich St. rental tower and has been a very energetic lender on the development scene.
Eliasaf declined to establish Werner’s flipee. Nor would he affirm what residential-market sources advised Realty Check — that the new proprietor of most of the building is CSC, a real estate investment firm specializing within the redevelopment and repositioning of distressed belongings.
CSC’s New York City tasks embody the adaptive reuse of a former Catholic church at 2045 Madison Ave. in East Harlem, and the conversion of a decayed hostel into the hip Riff Chelsea Hotel at 397 Eighth Ave. in Chelsea.
Eliasaf did share that the plan at 300 E. 42nd St. is to depart about 90,000 sq. toes on larger flooring, that are primarily leased to diplomatic and authorities tenants, as places of work.
Ran Eliasaf runs personal equity firm Northwind Group. JW Headshots/Northwind Group
But more than 93,000 vacant sq. toes will be converted to 135 rental flats, Eliasaf mentioned. The project will probably take pleasure in a tax abatement below the state’s 467-m program to facilitate residential conversions, in exchange for earmarking 20% of models as reasonably priced.
Eliasaf famous, “The ability to deliver mostly free-market new supply is very attractive, especially in Midtown.”
The building at 300 E. 42nd St. stands diagonally throughout the Second Avenue intersection from two former Pfizer buildings which can be being converted into a city-high 1,600 rental flats. Werner is a associate in that formidable project with Nathan Berman’s MetroLoft.
