Historic 228-year-old Bridge Cafe building in FiDi sells for $3.3M

Under The Bridge LLC paid $3.3 million to the Weprin family through the entity Bridge Associates, L.L.C. for the mixed-use building (K4) at 279 Water Street in the Financial District, Manhattan.
The deal closed on December 15, 2021 and was recorded on January 5, 2022.
The property has 5,653 square feet of built space and 4,233 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 9,878 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $583 and the price per buildable square foot is $334 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 the Weprin family was Michael Weprin.

This is a city landmark building, one of the oldest in New York. It is a wood-frame structure that dates back to 1794, and has long been home to the Bridge Cafe, which closed after Superstorm Sandy badly damaged the basement. The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2020 that Adam Weprin was facing challenges reopening the tavern, one of the longest continually operating bars in the city.

Jack Weprin acquired this building in November 1979. The Weprin entities have also had trouble spelling the owner entity name correctly in public records, despite many in the family being attorneys. Of the nine times the family has had records filed with the city since using the name Bridge Associates LLC, it has been misspelled four times in the cover page, including the first filing, spelled Bridge Assocaites, L.L.C. and the last filing with the deed transfer, as Brdige Associates, L.L.C.

The buyer entity Under The Bridge LLC is registered in Brooklyn.
The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Jack Weprin, head officer and Steve Frank, agent. The business entity is Bridge Associates care of Jack Weprin.
Within a 400-foot radius of 279 Water St, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
One of those four items was a sale which Sorabh Maheshwari’s Churchill Real Estate bought the 25,903-square-foot, 24-unit rental (D7) on 23 Peck Slip for $24.5 million from Churchill Real Estate Holdings on December 20, 2019.
Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $47.0 million. The most recent of the three was Werber Management which borrowed $15.5 million from Signature Bank secured by the 31,715-square-foot, 41-unit rental (D6) on 254 Front Street on November 9, 2021.

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