It’s Official: Parking Garage Will Become Luxury Condos

ByDon

NEW YORK CITY-DHA Capital LLC and its co-development partner Continental Properties have purchased 12 E. 13th St. in Manhattan. The property was sold for $32 million, or more than $700 per square foot. ABS Partners represented the sellers.

Hertz Rental Car previously occupied the ground floor while the remainder of the building, which spans 45,032 square feet of space, was being used as a parking garage. The new owners plan to turn the structure into upscale condominiums and will likely create a mix of full-floor homes and duplexes, along with retail facilities, according to a release.

“This is a highly desirable location where we intend to create large, super-luxury homes which will appeal to discriminating buyers,” says Steven Fisch, managing partner at Continental Properties, in the release.

”These types of homes are in very strong demand but short supply, particularly downtown,” adds Dan Hollander, managing principal of DHA. The team has engaged Cetra/Ruddy architects to design the conversion, which will not enlarge the building but will add several stories by demolishing part of the rear portion.

Located on the southern side of East 13th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue, the property is close to Union Square. A similar building that was a parking garage at 66 East 11th Street was recently converted into a residential building offering luxury condos.

Odell Real Estate represented the buyer. Hertz had vacated the building as its lease expired this past fall. The move allowed the building to be sold vacant, eliminating the uncertainty of a holdover tenant for potential buyers.

Constructed in 1930 of brick, steel, and concrete, the building was most likely used as a horse stable in addition to a parking garage for cars, as evidenced by heating coils throughout the building, according to ABS director Adam Maxson in a separate release. The building also features two large car elevators.

Recent construction activity in the Greenwich Village area helped create a strong demand for the building from a wide range of buyers that included both small local investors and large international investment groups, Maxson says in the release. The New School is currently constructing a 375,000-square-foot building just across the street and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013. Also, a high-end 113-room boutique hotel, the Jade Hotel, is being built on West 13th Street.

The seller was very happy with the purchase price, according to a press release issued by ABS. “The ABS team performed a stellar job navigating this complex transaction from start to finish,” says Darren Postel, one of the sellers, in the release. “ABS coordinated with a broad range of buyers to get this disposition executed. I could not be happier with the resulting sale at such an impressive number.”

This is the latest in a series of deals for DHA Capital. The firm is in pre-development of a 300-unit rental property on Manhattan’s West Side. At 53 Pitt St. in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, DHA created and is now marketing 14 rental lofts. In Brooklyn, DHA purchased a 200,000-square-foot development site at 88 Richardson St. The property, which was approved for 230 rental units, was sold by DHA in July of 2012. The firm also acquired and sold a stalled luxury co-op in Harlem for repositioning as a rental.

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  • Union Sq. Traffic Will Be Rerouted

    ByDon

    Here’s the pretty big news about upcoming traffic redesign and new pedestrian areas in and around Union Square:

    A plan to reshuffle traffic around Union Square and add a new pedestrian plaza nearby has been given the final green light after months of contentious debate.

    Community Board 5 voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Department of Transportation’s plan for the square despite continuing cries from a group of vocal residents who say the changes will only make traffic in the congested neighborhood worse.

    The revised plan, which the DOT will begin implementing in the coming months, will restrict traffic to one-way westbound on E. 17th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South.

    Broadway will be narrowed to one lane from 17th to 23rd streets, and a new pedestrian plaza will be added to the east side of Broadway between 17th and 18th streets. The exact design of the plaza, including whether or not it will have tables and chairs like Herald Square and Times Square, is still up for debate.

    To improve traffic on Park Avenue South, southbound cars will be prohibited from turning left at 18th Street, while northbound cars will be banned from turning left onto 19th and 23rd streets, among other restrictions.

    Numerous dedicated turning lanes will also be added, in addition to new protected bike lanes and revised parking schemes.

    The DOT’s Ryan Russo said the department hopes the plan will make the stretch more pedestrian-friendly, less chaotic and cut accidents in half.

    Nonetheless, a handful of residents continued to complain that they’ve been left out of the decision process and haven’t been given enough time to consider the changes.

    “I think this plan is being rushed to the extreme and rammed down neighbors’ throats,” lawyer Milton Meyers, 63, a 20-year resident of 18th Street and Irving Place, told the standing room-only crowd at the CB5 meeting Thursday.

    Artist Silvia Kolbowski, who has collected more than 300 neighborhood signatures opposing the plan, accused the DOT of caring less about improving safety than pushing through another pedestrian plaza as part of a larger city plan.

    “If the issue was safety at the crossings, then surely this plan is overblown,” said Kolbowski, 56, who has lived on East 18th Street at Park Avenue South for a decade. The plan, she said, will create “nothing but chaos.”

    While such opinions were overwhelming when the idea was first presented back in April, opposition has faded as the DOT has made revisions, including dropping an initial plan to completely shut down Broadway to traffic between E. 17th to 18th streets at certain times of the day.

    Numerous organizations, including representatives from New York University, the Union Square Green Market, the Union Square Partnership, and Transportation Alternatives have now joined in support of the plan.

    “This neighborhood has a chance to have some significant safety improvements that other neighborhoods are clamoring for,” dance instructor, Detta Ahl, 31, who lives in Morningside Heights but frequently cycles in the area, told the audience.

    The plan was ultimately adopted on a ‘pilot’ basis, with a provision that the DOT return in three and six months after implementation to report on the results.