The Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit advocacy group for low-income New Yorkers, paid $27.5 million to purchase a full floor office condominium unit at Time Equities’ 41-story building at 633 Third Avenue, according to property records filed with the city today.
The advocacy group bought the 44,779-square-foot, 10th-floor unit from Mount Sinai Medical Center. Mount Sinai has housed its administrative staff on both the ninth and 10th floors of the building since acquiring the condo in 1997. The ninth floor, which is the same size, is currently available for sale.
Time Equities, a real estate development firm led by Francis Greenburger, owns the commercial condos from floors 31 to 39 at the 1 million-square-foot Property Near East 41st Street. Units on the other floors in the building are owned by individual firms and organizations such as First American Title Insurance company, the Consulate General of Switzerland and Memorial Sloan-Ketting Cancer Society.
Nonprofits tend to purchase commercial condos rather than lease them because they receive a roughly 15 percent break on their real estate taxes.
Geoffrey Newman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the Community Service Society, while Barry Zeller, Josh Kuriloff and John Serko of Cushman & Wakefield represented Mount Sinai. Serko represented Mount Sinai in its 1997 purchase across two floors.
The Community Service Society was one of three owners of the United Charities building that sold it to Cheerland Investments for $128 million last month. Newman represented the nonprofit in that deal as well.
Condominium owners pay an average $625 per square foot in the building, Newman said. This deal closed for about $612 per square foot.
The building is also home to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, which leases the 38th and 39th floors, as previously reported.
In 2012, Greenburger said he considered selling the floors of office condos that the firm owns because he wasn’t certain whether the state and the city would stay after their leases expired.
Last week, Time entered contract to acquire the Venetian rental building in Brooklyn’s Midwood, as The Real Deal reported.
Representatives for neither Mount Sinai nor the Community Service Society could be immediately reached.