Sixteenth Street Synagogue’s longtime home goes on the block

15,368-square-foot mixed-use build asks $30M

Jack Braha and 3 West 16th Street
Jack Braha and 3 West 16th Street

The 15,368-square-foot building at 3 West 16th Street — a renovated and unoccupied six-story property that boasts four luxury residential units and one commercial unit, which was formerly home to the Sixteenth Street Synagogue — is hitting the market for $30 million.

“I’m giving an investor an opportunity,” said developer and building owner Jack Braha, who’s handling the marketing himself. “Since the market is still hot, it doesn’t hurt to put it out there.”

The property, where the synagogue was evicted last year, has ground-level retail. The approximate square footage for the retail is 1,500 square feet. Braha said he’s in advanced talks with a tenant for this space: A national chain of high-end spa treatment centers looking to expand in the New York metro area, though he declined to reveal the specifics.

The New York Observer first reported the news.

Floors 2 through 5 are full-floor apartments, all of which have an approximate square footage of 2,550 square feet. The second through fourth floors have three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The fifth floor has two bedrooms and a potential for a third, and 2.5 bathrooms.

Ceilings reach 10 feet in height in each home. A buyer can either sell the apartments as condominiums or rent them out. There are also 3,134 square feet of air rights to tack on a penthouse atop the building.

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Condos in this area are selling at an average of $1,884 per square foot, according to CityRealty, which is up from the 2013 average of $1,662 per square foot.

Total revenue from a rental scenario of both the commercial and residential portions works out to $1.2 million annually, according to the building’s offering memo.

Architect Jeff Cole, who worked at the nearby Whitman, had a hand in this project. He said that each residential unit has a washer and dryer and its own central air conditioning and heating unit. The lower two units have kitchens with Shinoki cabinetry. The upper two residences have Shinoki and white lacquer details in the kitchens. They all have Caesarstone countertops and backsplashes of glass tile.

“The kitchens look really slick,” he said. He declined to comment further on the project.

The Sixteenth Street Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation, occupied space in the building for 67 years until their eviction last January. They were caught in the middle of a feud between Braha and another developer, Steven Ancona, who was leasing space in the property. The eviction was aimed at Ancona, who Braha charged did not perform on his net lease for the synagogue.

The synagogue eventually became a casualty of the developers’ issues. Its officials made an unsuccessful bid for an interim stay of eviction early last January, claiming they had a one-third ownership stake in the building.