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Hotel developer Sam Chang’s $164.5 million sale of a three-pack of hotels at 337, 339 and 343 West 39th Street in Times Square to Hersha Hospitality Trust was the largest commercial transaction to close in February, data from PropertyShark.com shows. The second largest was the $110 million sale by an affiliate of developer Heritage Partners at 415 Greenwich Street of three commercial and 31 residential units at the 66-unit condominium conversion project in Tribeca, to an affiliate of California-based real estate investment firm KBS Capital Advisors. The next two largest sales were commercial units. In the first, an affiliate of Avenue Capital Group sold four retail condo units at the 115-unit condo conversion Avonova at 219 West 81st Street to an affiliate of Madison Capital for $26.5 million. In the other, an affiliate of the developer World-Wide Group sold three retail condos at 255 East 74th Street to an affiliate of the Related Companies for $25 million. [more]

213 East 63rd Street

The city’s School Construction Authority bought the Upper East Side school building at 213 East 63rd Street near Third Avenue from an affiliate of developer World-Wide Group for $32.2 million, or about $767 per square foot.

While the sale was expected, the price had not been revealed. The city closed on the purchase from the World-Wide Group’s affiliate 213 East 63rd Street LLC Feb. 19, the same day as the contract, according to property records filed today.

World-Wide, which is also the developer of luxury residential developments such as 255 East 74th Street, bought the property in 2007 for $30.7 million from the Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital, city records show. World-Wide bought the approximately 42,000-square-foot building in 2007 with the plan to develop the school, a spokesperson for the company said. Company president James Stanton was not available for comment. [more]

Since 9/11, I have been mistaken rather regularly for a terrorist. These misunderstandings — and I assure you they are misunderstandings — occur not in airports, but on the streets of Manhattan. There I am, standing in front of some dull and innocuous building, taking video footage of it in order to aid my memory so that I can write articles like this one. More often than not, some concerned citizen starts observing my actions with a greater than ordinary interest. People are still uneasy seeing someone videotape, or even look, at any building above street level, because maybe the person — in this case, me — is casing the joint in order to bomb it at some later date. Who could blame them, when the building in question could have no other possible attraction to anyone with a recording device? And it is true enough that all too many new developments in Manhattan live up — really down — to that cynical appraisal. more

255 East 74th Street

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The daughter of the late Queens real estate tycoon Samuel LeFrak sold an Upper East Side two-bedroom condominium for a loss after owning the apartment for less than half a year. Real estate heiress and author Denise LeFrak, who paid $2.55 million in December for the 1,576-square-foot apartment on the 11th floor of a new building at 255 East 74th Street, sold it this month for $2.14 million, a reduction of 16 percent. LeFrak went into contract on the sale to Daniel Brockett, a partner at litigation firm Quinn Emanuel, in April and closed May 14, according to city property records published today. She bought the sponsor unit in the 30-story tower at the corner of
Second Avenue developed by the World-Wide Group. “I wanted to get a better price but I couldn’t,” said Brockett, who does not know LeFrak. “The reality is the market has dropped a lot,” he added. [more]