Owners of Tribeca Film Festival HQ want $105M for property

Whitestar, VE Equities paid $56M for condo-friendly 13-17 Laight Street in 2012

From left: David Schechtman, the Tribeca Film Festival building at 13-17 Laight Street and Zach Vella
From left: David Schechtman, the Tribeca Film Festival building at 13-17 Laight Street and Zach Vella

The headquarters of the Tribeca Film Festival is being shopped around for $105 million, after trading hands for just $56 million at the end of 2012, The Real Deal has learned.

Eastern Consolidated’s David Schechtman is marketing the 80,000-square-foot, six-story mixed-use property at 13-17 Laight Street on behalf of the owners, investment advisory firm Whitestar Advisors and development firm VE Equities, headed by Zach Vella and Justin Ehrlich. Schechtman declined to comment, while Whitestar and VE couldn’t be reached.

The building is ripe for conversion to luxury condominiums. Several of the commercial leases at the building are set to expire in 2014 and 2015, according to CoStar Group, which would allow the building to be repositioned. The structure has nine residential units on the upper floors, all but one of them market-rate. The property also comes with unused air rights which could allow for the construction of more units.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

When Whitestar bought the property from Mazda Realty Associates, it intended to expand and repurpose it as condos, sources told TRD at the time. VE Equities has the building listed on its website, but doesn’t provide further details.

Condos at neighboring 1 York Street are asking north of $3,000 per square foot, according to StreetEasy.