Six Sigma pays $800 psf for High Line air rights

Six Sigma NYC’s Jason Lee paid an eye-popping $800 per buildable foot for High Line-area air rights to add to his West Chelsea condo development site.

The developer paid $3.92 million for 4,900 square feet of air rights to add to his site at 517-523 West 29 Street, the New York Post reported.

“On the surface, $800 per buildable square foot may sound like a high price, but essentially this buildable square footage is going to be added to the top of the developer’s condominium project,” said Highcap Group [TRDataCustom] senior director Michael Ferrara, who brokered the deal with his colleague Josh Goldflam.

Six Sigma plans to knock down a six-story warehouse and replace it with a 10-story luxury condo building. The developer bought the site last year for $54.75 million, as The Real Deal first reported.

The total volume dollar of air rights deals done so far this year has dropped off precipitously. Through the third quarter of this year the total dollar figure spent was down nearly 74 percent compared to the same time in 2015 to $269.78 million, TRD reported earlier this month.

City Center Real Estate president Robert Shapiro said at the time that the High Line is one of the few places where air rights are still in high demand, commanding prices around $750 to $800 per square foot.

“If you can find them,” he said. “That’s the trick.”

A trio of Shanghai-based private equity firms recently invested in Six Sigma’s condo project, but Lee told the post it is not a partnership and his firm remains the developer on the project. [NYP] – Rich Bockmann