Investors snap up Chinatown corner buildings for $34M

A partnership led by the Manhattan-based Oved Group, a family-run firm, paid $33.6 million to acquire two contiguous buildings on a corner lot in Chinatown.

President Isaac Oved said the company acquired the properties, at 159-165 Canal Street and 40-42 Elizabeth Street, in a partnership with investors Nathan Accad and Jem Realty’s Alan Jemal. The deal, which closed Oct. 24, according to public records, was brokered by Paul Massey, Robert Burton and Nick Petkoff of Massey Knakal Realty Services.

Oved’s real estate division, overseen by Oved’s nephew Joseph Oved, owns properties such as the ground lease on Uniqlo’s retail location at 31 West 34th Street.

The seller was Chinatown landlord the Dadourian family, which had owned the properties since 1980, records show. Dardourian’s Paul Esposito was not immediately available for comment.

The 5,000-square-foot Canal Street property, which sits on a 2,500-square-foot lot, is a two-story retail and office building, currently anchored by First Republic Bank. The other five ground-floor tenants in the building are jewelry businesses, according to the listing by Massey Knakal. The property had been asking $21 million.

The Elizabeth Street building has a total 24,425 square feet and sits on a 5,023-square-foot lot. It had been asking $14 million.

“Because we were able to sell the two properties together, the buyers saw more potential to unlock value and were willing to pay a premium for each property, allowing us to set a record price per square foot for Canal Street and achieve 15 percent above-market for a side street in the neighborhood,” said Paul Massey.

Combined, the properties could become a large prospective residential or hotel development site, but Oved said the company’s plans for the properties currently revolved around their retail components. The firm might consider adding a hotel or residential component later, he said. He declined to comment further on his specific plans for the retail.