Mysterious European investor signs $43.5M initial loan for residential elevator in Greenwich Village

Unidentified European investors through the entity Carmine Limited as borrower signed an initial loan with lender Santander Bank valued at $43.5 million for the 125-unit residential elevator building at 1 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on March 25, 2022 and was recorded on April 4, 2022.
The property has 102,354 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $424 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 owner bought the property on December 18, 2020, for $92.6 million, at the time taking on no debt. The signatory for Carmine Limited was Edward Adler. The owner was described by The Real Deal when it purchased the property in 2020 as a “European investor” who bought it in an all-cash deal.

Prior sales and revenue

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Edward Adler, head officer and Randy Glick, agent. The business entities are GPG Management and Carmine Ltd.

The property

The 1 Christopher Street parcel has frontage of 113 feet and is 97 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,060 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C1-6 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 3.44 times FAR for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $40.1 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 36 housing violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Greenwich Village, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 34 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has the 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Greenwich Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 445,850 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 40 commercial properties representing 170,201 square feet of the 395,708 square feet. The largest owner is Carmine Limited, followed by S.W. Management and then Jonis Realty. There is one active new building construction project totaling 5,172 square feet. It is a two-unit, 5,172-square-foot R-3 building developed by Christopher Ma with plans filed December 29, 2020 and it has not been permitted yet.

The majority, or 39 percent of the 420,525 square feet of built space are residential walkup buildings, with residential elevator buildings next occupying 29 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1 Christopher Street, PincusCo identified 13 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 13 items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on March 7, 2022 for the $437,000 renovation of 3,085-square-foot B building with no residential units at 391 6th Avenue.
Of those 13 items, five were sales above $5 million totaling $92.6 million. The most recent of the five was Oculus Realty with Adam J. Semler as signatory which bought the 3,870-square-foot, one-unit townhouse (A4) on 1 Patchin Place and 10 other properties for $32 million from Morgan Holding Capital on March 15, 2022.
Of those 13 items, seven were loans above $5 million totaling $76.4 million. The most recent of the seven was Oculus Realty which borrowed $21 million from Ladder Capital secured by the 3,870-square-foot, one-unit townhouse (A4) on 1 Patchin Place and 10 other properties on March 15, 2022.

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