Jewish Daily Forward building flips for $20M

Craig Nassi of BCN Development and 45 East 33rd Street (building photo: PropertyShark)Developer Craig Nassi sold the former Midtown offices of the Jewish Daily Forward to a Los Angeles-based entity called NYC Hotel 33 LLC for $20 million in a quick flip after buying the property the same day from the long-time owners.

Nassi’s BCN Development had planned to build a 108-unit condominium at the six-story site at 45 East 33rd Street known as the Workmen’s Circle building, Nassi told The Real Deal in August.

Instead, after going into contract in May 2010 to buy the property for $18.5 million from the two non-profit organizations that owned it, the Forward Association and Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, he signed a contract Oct. 15 to sell it to the California entity for $20 million, city property records published today show. Both sales closed Nov. 18, with the Los Angeles buyer as the final owner.

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The address of buyer NYC Hotel 33 is in care of hotel developer Peter Zen’s Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. Messages left with his office were not immediately returned.

Nassi confirmed in an e-mail that he resold the property after he closed on it, but said that the transfer figures were incorrect. Due to a confidentiality agreement, he said he could not elaborate on the sale.

The approximately 42,000-square-foot Workmen’s Circle building, just two blocks east of the Empire State Building between Madison and Park avenues, has an additional approximately 40,000 square feet in air rights, PropertyShark.com shows.