Gaia plans $232M condominium in Hell’s Kitchen

Danny Fishman’s firm picked up former St. Vincent’s hospital site for $156.5M

DannyFishmanWest52nd
From left: Danny Fishman and 416 West 52nd Street

Gaia Real Estate’s latest condo project – at the former St. Vincent’s Midtown hospital building in Hell’s Kitchen – will have a total sellout of $232.4 million, according to a newly filed offering plan.

Located at 416 West 52nd Street, the project will also have a total of 155 residential units, according to a summary of the plan filed with the state Attorney General’s office and reviewed by The Real Deal.

Gaia, led by co-founder and managing principal Danny Fishman, bought the vacant building from the Chetrit Group for $156.5 million this summer after obtaining a $122.8 million acquisition loan from TPG Real Estate to fund the deal.

Chetrit and Tessler Developments paid $88.7 million for 416 and 432 West 52nd Street in 2007. Plans to convert the properties into apartments stalled during the recession. After completing the conversion last year, the developer sold 432 West 52nd for $41.4 million. Gaia closed on 416 West 52nd Street in August of this year.

Fishman did not respond to a request to comment, but he has disclosed plans to convert the vacant apartments into “affordable” condos, with prices starting at less than $1 million and going as high as $2.5 million.

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“We are not looking for the Chinese billionaire to buy a penthouse,” he told the Wall Street Journal in August. “Our clients are empty nesters and New Yorkers.”

Manhattan’s median sales price rose 9.9 percent to $998,000 during the third quarter, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The new development median jumped 25.7 percent to just over $2 million.

Gaia has bet on Manhattan’s middle-income housing market before. In 2014, the firm paid $147 million to buy 144 rental apartments at the Corinthian in Murray Hill from Spitzer Enterprises. Earlier this year, Gaia and Arco Group also paid $75 million for the Montrose, a Murray Hill rental building at 308 East 38th Street, and are currently converting the 97 units into condos.