Top 10 development deals of 2014

Ziel Feldman's $800 million West Chelsea buy nearly twice the price of No. 2

From left: Ziel Feldman, Jerry Gottesman, Rob Speyer and Jeffrey Katz
From left: Ziel Feldman, Jerry Gottesman, Rob Speyer and Jeffrey Katz

Not all nine-figure deals are created equal. Sure, you can talk about how you closed on a development site for $100 million. You can even start bragging if you hit $250 million. But not when Ziel Feldman is in the room.

HFZ Capital Group’s contract to buy an $800 million-plus development site along the High Line in West Chelsea, a transaction first reported by The Real Deal, was the biggest development site deal of 2014 so far, almost twice the size of the next deal on TRD’s list of 10 biggest land sales.

That said, the other contenders on the list are nothing to sneeze it. Check them out below.

1) 501 West 17th Street

Buyer: Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group Seller: Edison Properties and partners Price: $800 million+

Feldman went into contract the day before Thanksgiving to purchase the full-block Site Straddled By The High Line Between 10th Avenue and the West Side Highway. The property holds more than 760,000 square feet of buildable floor area, and could be home to one of the neighborhood’s largest buildings.

An insider at Edison Properties, which had controlled the site along with its equity partners since Sol Goldman sold it in 1983, said the company expects Feldman to build one “of the most iconic buildings on New York’s skyline.”

2) 435 10th Avenue

Buyer: Tishman Speyer Sellers: The Rosenthal Family and Sherwood Equities Price: $438 million

In two separate deals, Tishman bought a pair of properties at the corner of 34th Street and 10th Avenue which were being marketed by brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services as an opportunity to build the city’s tallest building.

Tishman, however, has plans to build a squatter, 2.6 million-square-foot mixed use tower with deeper floor plates more appropriate for office use. The developer estimates the entire cost of building the tower to be $3.2 billion.

Tishman bought one property from the Rosenthal Family for $238 million and another from Sherwood Equities for $200 million.

3) Long Island College Hospital

Buyer: Fortis Group Seller: The State University of New York Price: $250 million

In a process that took nearly two years to complete, Fortis beat out a handful of rival bidders including the Peebles Group and the Chetrit Group to purchase the Cobble Hill campus. Fortis agreed to build an ambulatory care center with partner NYU Langone Medical Center and plans to develop the rest of the site as a residential project with rentals, condos and townhouses. The full-block site holds more than one million square feet of space, according to PropertyShark. The plan includes an affordable housing component.

4) 125 Greenwich Street

Buyer: Michael Shvo and David Bizzi Seller: Fisher Brothers and Witkoff Equities Price: $186.9 million

Flashy developer Michael Shvo paid $183.9 million to purchase the development site and an additional $3 million to buy neighboring development rights. He plans to build a 77-story, 128-unit condo tower that will be just 12 feet shy of the height of nearby One World Trade Center. The building will be just shy of 360,000 square feet.

5) 114 Fulton Street

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Buyer: Carmel Partners Seller: The Lightstone Group Price: $171 million

The California-based developer paid $171 million for a parcel of land and air rights at the corner of Fulton and Dutch streets. Lightstone, which had assembled a larger development site on the corner, originally planned to build a 59-story building with 460 units on the portion it sold to Carmel Partners.

6) Kedem Winery site

Buyer: Spitzer Engineering Seller: Rector Hylan Corporation Price: $165 million

Former Governor Eliot Spitzer went into contract to buy the 2.8-acre Kedem Winery development site in Williamsburg where developer the Rector Hylan Corp. had tried for years to erect a pair of mixed-use towers. The site comes with variances that allow for a 24-story tower with 309 units and an 18-story tower with 104 units.

7) 100 Varick Street

Buyer: Michael Shvo and Erez Itzhaki Seller: Shalimar Management Corporation Price: $133.5 million

Shvo makes his second appearance on this list with the purchase of a Soho site that could support a residential tower of up to 280,000 square feet. The building would provide residents with views of both the Hudson River and the Empire State Building.

8) 264-270 West Street

Buyer: Related Companies Seller: Ponte Equities Price: $115.3 million

The Pontes, one of the largest property owners in Tribeca, used to operate a restaurant in one of the buildings that was part of the assemblage. Related picked up six parcels on the West Street development site between Desbrosses and Vestry streets and has plans to build a 152,000 square-foot condominium building with 46 units.

9) 350 West 39th Street

Buyer: McSam Group Seller: Robert Greenberg Price: $112 million

Hotel developer Sam Chang bought the Garment District former home of advertising company R/GA. The site offers 300,000 buildable square feet. Chang said he was considering building a hotel with a residential component on the site.

10) 16-18 West 57th Street

Buyer: Fasano family Seller: Extell Development Price: $95 million

The Fasano family of Brazil in August bought the vacant lot from Gary Barnett’s Extell on Billionaire’s Row. Barnett had bought the site in 2011 in what some saw as a bid to prevent Sheldon Solow from assembling a site near One57. The Fasanos reportedly want to build a hotel with condos on top.