$50M note sold, debt secured by Casco Development’s 30-unit condo in Chelsea

The anonymous entity Ray New York LLC bought a note with an original principal of $50 million from Bank Hapoalim secured by Casco Development’s 30-unit residential condominium elevator project at 540 West 21st Street in Chelsea, Manhattan.
The deal closed on April 7, 2022 and was recorded on April 14, 2022. The prior lender was Bank Hapoalim which held debt that had an original loan amount of $50 million.
The property has 211,060 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data.
The owner bought the property on January 30, 2014, for $50 million. Noam Teltch, who signed on the previous mortgage is associated with Casco Development. Quinlan Development’s Marc Lazarus filed plans in 2017 for a 34-unit, 171,800 square foot building. Condo plans with a $539.3 million sellout were filed in 2018 with with state Attorney General. Uri Chaitchik and Noam Teltch were listed as the principals.

The property

The 540 West 21st Street parcel has frontage of 233 feet and is 118 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,555 square feet. The zoning is C6-3 which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 7.52 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.2 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 two DOB violations and $3,330 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

On these lots, there is one active new building construction project for a 34-unit, 171,800-square-foot R-2 building. The project was filed by Marc Lazarus with plans filed December 26, 2017 and permitted July 9, 2019.

The neighborhood

In Chelsea, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial 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 elevator buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 14 commercial properties representing 124,385 square feet of the 699,950 square feet. The identified owner is StorageMart. There are two active new building construction projects totaling 263,795 square feet. The largest is a 34-unit, 171,800-square-foot R-2 building developed by Marc Lazarus with plans filed December 26, 2017 and permitted July 9, 2019.

The majority, or 33 percent of the 691,983 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 540 West 21st Street, PincusCo identified 10 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 10 items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on May 28, 2021 for the $3.9 million renovation of 28,819-square-foot E building at 556 West 22nd Street.
Of those 10 items, five were sales above $5 million totaling $201.7 million. The most recent of the five was 12aw21 LLC which bought one condo unit in the 4,271-square-foot, 45-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 144 11th Avenue for $15.7 million from Robert S. Wiesenthal on February 22, 2022.
Of those 10 items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $1.9 billion. The most recent of the four was StorageMart which borrowed $1.7 billion from Barclays secured by the 257,400-square-foot, two-unit industrial (E7) on 510 West 21st Street and 16 other properties on January 6, 2022.

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