It’s a gas: Developers making unsolicited bid for fuel stations

James Nelson and the Mobil station on 11th Avenue and West 51st Street (Credit: Tim Townsend/Flickr)
James Nelson and the Mobil station on 11th Avenue and West 51st Street (Credit: Tim Townsend/Flickr)

Developers are increasingly making unsolicited offers for gas stations in Manhattan, in a bid to snap up land for condominium, retail and office projects. A decade ago, 33 gas stations south of 96th Street were in operation, according to city records, but just 11 remain today. The trend is also seen Uptown, with 10 stations in operation compared with 14 stations in 2003.

On the Far West Side, for example, Michael Shvo and Victor Homes bought a gas station on West 24th Street for $23.5 million earlier this year, in order to build a luxury residential art-themed project that industry observers said was Shvo’s “make-or-break” second chance.

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And now, A Gas Station On 11th Avenue And West 51st Street is asking $9.5 million and is being marketed as a condo development site, the Wall Street Journal reported. Listing broker James Nelson of Massey Knakal Realty Services told the newspaper that the property had drawn multiple suitors and was “definitely going over the asking price.”

The brokerage’s chairman Robert Knakal told the Journal that the return on a gas station with air rights “is minuscule” compared to what the site’s real estate is worth. [WSJ]  – Hiten Samtani