Spirit Halloween was only a temporary solution for a Chelsea property, which is preparing for its next life as a (hopefully unhaunted) residential building.
Wolfe Landau’s Watermark Capital Group acquired 101 Seventh Avenue for an undisclosed price, the Commercial Observer reported. It closed on the acquisition from Regency Centers of Connecticut last week, bringing in a $10.5 million senior first-mortgage loan from the Northwind Group for acquisition and pre-development.
The Moshe Group’s Moshe Majeski and Broward Property Advisors’ Adam Sprung arranged the financing.
Watermark is planning a 44-unit rental property with ground-floor retail space. Landau plans on utilizing the 467m conversion program, which requires at least 25 percent of a building’s units to be affordable. For this project, the affordable units will also be permanently rent-stabilized.
The 57,000-square-foot vacant retail condominium has as-of-right zoning for residential use. The floorplates are also well-situated for a residential conversion, according to Northwind’s Ran Eliasaf, and the site has more than 120 feet of frontage on Seventh Avenue.
Barneys was at its 101 Seventh Avenue location from 2016 to 2019, when the company went into bankruptcy. The brand was ultimately sold to Authentic Brands and B. Riley, which shuttered all of its stores in 2020.
In 2021, Spirit Halloween took up temporary residence at the building, which ownership had been looking to sell around the time for $40 million to $50 million, the Observer previously reported.
Watermark in March landed $125 million in construction financing for the conversion of 175 Pearl Street in Dumbo. Bravo Property Trust — an affiliate of Bravo Capital — and Integritas Capital provided the debt, a year after BridgeCity Capital originated a $50.6 million acquisition loan.
Watermark acquired the eight-story, 185,000-square-foot office property from Cannon Hill Capital Partners for $66.5 million, immediately launching plans to convert the 1918-built property into a 19-story complex.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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