Influential performing arts family sells historic rock venue for $10.5M to Japanese tea company

An entity affiliated with the Kirke family, which includes high-profile actors, musicians and the late British Sephardic property investor Jack Dellal, sold an unassuming five-story building at 213 Park Avenue South, in the Gramercy neighborhood, to Ippodo Tea, a Japanese tea company founded in 1717, for $10.5 million. The property a block north of Union Square, was once home to the legendary music venue, Max’s Kansas City, where bands such as the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and others played.

Ippodo Tea, through the entity Ippodo Tea USA Inc., bought the residential and retail building from the Kirke family through the entity 213 P.A.S. LLC. The property has four residential units, and is a mixed-use building (K9) located on the east side of Park Avenue South between 17th Street and 18th Street.

The deal closed on February 26, 2024 and was recorded on March 21, 2024. The property has 10,580 square feet of built space and 18,735 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 29,320 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $993 and the price per buildable square foot is $358 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 buyer is an owner-occupier, part of an active trend in New York City with users buying properties.

Traded NY reported the sale but not the buyer or seller, and noted the buy-side brokers were Brandon Polakoff and Noah Kossoff from Avison Young and the sell-side broker was Brett Siegel from Newmark.

The seller entity purchased the building in 1997 for $1.25 million, according to a PincusCo analysis of property records. Lorraine Dallal and Simon Kirke married in 1983. The Kirke family includes Lorraine Kirke, who owned the boutique clothing store Geminola in the West Village. Her father is the late Jack Dellal, a British property investor of Iraqi-Sephardic descent. Lorraine’s children include Jemima Kirke of Girls and actor and musician Lola Kirke, as well as photographer Gregory Morris, Lorraine’s son, who is manager of the property.

Prior sales and revenue

The former owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Gregory Morris, head officer and Greg Morris, site manager. The business entity is 213 Pas Llc.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 115 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,932 square feet. The zoning is C6-4A which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.9 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 $580 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 Gramercy, The bulk, or 31 percent of the 11.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Gramercy has 1.7 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $507.3 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 17th highest in Manhattan. For development, Gramercy has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 26th highest in Manhattan. It had 920,413 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 8 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 17 commercial properties representing 559,401 square feet of the 892,192 square feet. The largest owner is Global Holdings Management Group, followed by Marriott International and then Scharfman Organization.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 36 percent of the 892,192 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

Correction: A prior version of this post said the property was on the west side of Park Avenue South, when in fact it is on the east side. 

Direct link to Acris document. link