Manhattan, Brooklyn garage portfolio could fetch $250M

From left: Robert Knakal, 25-27 Beekman Street and 205 West 101st Street (Building photos: Google)
From left: Robert Knakal, 25-27 Beekman Street and 205 West 101st Street (Building photos: Google)

Real estate insiders say a package of eight family-owned parking garages in prime Manhattan and Brooklyn that recently hit the market could net as much as $250 million because of their redevelopment potential.

The buildings are just a few in the large portfolio owned by the Wolf family and managed by their company, Rapid Park.

The largest site is in Lower Manhattan, at 25-27 Beekman Street, and has 84,604 square feet of development rights. It is adjacent to a development site for sale by another seller, creating the potential for a buyer to grab 157,122 square feet of development rights.

The other properties, with development rights from 20,000 square feet up to about 70,000 square feet, are in Lower Manhattan, Murray Hill, NoMad, Midtown West, the Upper West Side, Brooklyn Heights and Prospect Park. The package includes three buildings that are larger than current zoning allows, making conversion to residential a strong possibility. The others are likely to be demolished to make room for new structures.

The blended projected sale price of $712 per square foot for the six buildings is well above the average $509 per foot for sales in Manhattan last quarter, Massey Knakal Realty Services information shows, illustrating the sellers’ high expectations for property prices.

Parking garages have long been eyed as valuable conversion opportunities, in part because they typically don’t have a complicated list of tenants to deal with. Developers have been buying up parking lots recently as well.

A Massey Knakal team with company Chairman Robert Knakal, Jonathan Hageman and Elysa Berlin, has the exclusive listing, according to marketing material reviewed by The Real Deal. Knakal declined to comment. A call to the Wolf’s Rapid Park was not returned.

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This listing is one of a string of $200 million-plus deals Knakal and his team have brought to market or closed this year, including the sale of the Hudson Spire site to Tishman Speyer for $238 million; 111 Washington Street, in contract for about $225 million; 21 Penn Plaza, on the market for $250 million, and the right to broker the sale of air rights over Moynihan Station.

The six-story Beekman garage, located between Nassau and William streets, is two blocks east of City Hall Park, and adjacent to 19 Beekman Street, with 72,518 square feet of development rights, which Massey Knakal listed as well.

The next largest is an eight-story garage at 10-14 East 30th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in NoMad. The parking structure now occupies 48,466 square feet, but has rights for a total of 71,594 square feet, PropertyShark shows. It is a few buildings away from a site Victor Homes purchased from Kushner Real Estate Group for $99 million earlier this year.

One of the two buildings on The Upper West Side Is 205 West 101th Street, a seven-story garage. At 54,800 square feet, it is built nearly 25,000 square feet larger than current zoning allows, so insiders expect a buyer to convert it to residential use rather than tear it down.

Directly across the street is another garage, with 45,665 square feet. This one, too, is built larger than allowed under current zoning, by some 6,665 square feet. So again, a buyer would likely redevelop it as a residential building or keep it as a garage.

The next largest buildings are 411-413 West 55th Street, a 30,432-square-foot parking garage in Midtown West; 148-150 East 33rd Street in Murray Hill with 26,400 square feet of development rights; 38 State Street in Brooklyn Heights, with 24,140 square feet of development rights, and 906 Union Street in Park Slope, with 20,250 square feet of development rights.