Ezratty gearing up to harvest fall bonanza

Real Estate Weekly,  Sept 21, 2005  by Daniel Geiger

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Capping off August by handling the $95 million dollar sale of the Clearwater Portfolio, a collection of

residential buildings in Greenwich Village, Eastern Consolidated's Brian Ezratty has wasted no time keeping busy in September.

Having tackled the $26 million sale of a leasehold interest in 280 Broadway's first two floors and parking garage at the start of the month, Ezratty now will be brokering the upcoming disposition of 11 West 19th Street, an 11-story, 250K s/f office building that Ezratty says could grab-over $100 million.

Just how much over $100 million will depend, he says, on the market's perception of the property's viability as a condo conversion however, a redevelopment that could be hindered by a number of five-year leases remaining in the building.

"It will be interesting to see what happens," Ezratty said. "We've seen developers pay top dollar in the neighborhood for similar properties that are vacant. In this case the owners tried to create as much vacancy as possible so that they could sell the property as a potential condo building but there still are a few tenants that remain. The pricing will depend on how willing those tenants are to either be bought out of their leases or be perhaps consolidated in one part of the building so that the rest can be converted."

Ezratty will also soon be handling the sale of a 130K s/f condo interest owned by Broadway Management in 820 2nd Avenue.

The building had been previously converted into office condos but only about 45K s/f of space was successfully sold off. Because of the building's proximity to the United Nations, various international missions have become rental tenants in much of the unsold 130K s/f, leaving the next owner with a choice of whether to again try to divvy up and sell the property as individual office condos or maintain it as rental space.

"They can run it as an office building or sell the units off as they roll over," Ezratty said.

The latter option, which for the most part failed in the first time around years ago, now appears poised for greater success. Ezratty cited the recent successful conversion of the Bar Building at 36 West 44th Street into office condominiums by real estate owner Phil Pilevsky as an indication of a far stronger market for office condos. He thinks 820 could grab as much as $50 million.

"There's a viable market for office condos now," Ezratty said. "I think office tenants would like to control their own fate."

Last month Ezratty sold the Clearwater Portfolio, owned by Sterling Equities and consisting of ten Greenwich Village properties totaling approximately 254K s/f and 27K s/f of retail space, to YL Realty. He followed that deal with the sale of the leasehold at 280 Broadway to Fram Realty, a transaction he called a retail play because the building, whose retail space is included in the leasehold, boasts high profile retail tenant JP Morgan Chase as well as staples Duane Reade and Radio Shack. A non-profit dance studio occupies the second floor, which along with the first floor and parking garage, comprises the leasehold's space.

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