HFZ buys UES building in potential assemblage play

HFZ Capital Group has purchased a commercial building on the Upper East Side for $22.5 million in a potential assemblage play, according to property records.

The developer purchased the two-story building at 1135 Lexington Avenue from Mary McCullough and John Bono, a pair of Long Island-based sellers. It currently houses a branch of First Republic Bank.

HFZ also owns 1131 Lexington Avenue, which they purchased at the end of November for $7.1 million, according to property records.

The latest purchase could mark another step in an assemblage plan encompassing seven parcels at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 79th Street with more than 80,000 buildable square feet, according to an analysis of property records. The addresses would include 1129 and 1133 Lexington Avenue, along with 154, 152 and 150 East 79th Street.

HFZ founder Ziel Feldman declined to comment on his company’s plans for the site.

HFZ recently sold off 46 apartments at its Chatsworth co-op conversion on the Upper West Side for $38 million to an entity with connections to the Safras, a Brazilian banking family. Abro Management filed a suit against the company in November, claiming that HFZ and Vornado owe it roughly $15 million in proceeds from condo sales at the Marquand at 11 East 68th Street.

Elsewhere on the Upper East Side, developer Miki Naftali is putting together an assemblage of properties along Madison Avenue by East 80th Street, roughly two avenues west of HFZ’s purchase.