Sharif El-Gamal to buy Chelsea development site for $60M

Soho Properties could build 125K sf property at 113-117 West 24th St.

From left: John Lam, Sharif El-Gamal (Credit: Williams New York) and the 25th Street portion of the site
From left: John Lam, Sharif El-Gamal (Credit: Williams New York) and the 25th Street portion of the site

Sharif El-Gamal’s Soho Properties is in contract to buy a Chelsea development site at 113-117 West 24th Street for $60 million, The Real Deal has learned. The deal will allow El-Gamal to build a commercial project of about 125,000 square feet.

The seller is John Lam’s the Lam Group, which is holding on to the portion of the site at 112-118 West 25th Street. Lam was planning a 330-room, 177,513-square-foot Renaissance Hotel at the site, as previously reported. After the deal with El-Gamal goes through, Lam will have about 140,000 buildable square feet to work with, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

James Tamborlane of MHP Real Estate Services represented El-Gamal in the transaction. He confirmed the price and the size of his buyer’s project, but declined to comment further. The Lam Group, which was represented by broker Migo Lee, declined to comment.

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Gary Barnett’s Extell Development bought the site in 2006 for $42.7 million, but faced foreclosure in 2012 after its mortgage holder Wells Fargo moved to take control. Extell then sold the site to Lam for $67.5 million in 2013, and Lam proceeded to buy up additional air rights, giving it a total of about 265,000 buildable square feet, sources said.

El-Gamal is the developer behind the upcoming 120,000-square-foot residential condominium at 45 Park Place and a Jean Nouvel-designed Islamic museum at 49-51 Park Place.