Chelsea development site trades for $35M; zoning allows for office tower

Buyer could capitalize on booming Midtown South leasing market

From left: Brock Emmetsberger, 132-142 West 27th St, James Nelson
From left: Brock Emmetsberger, 132-142 West 27th St, James Nelson

A 120-foot-wide Chelsea parking lot primed for the development of a commercial office tower has traded for $35 million in a deal that closed July 2, public records filed with the city today show.

The lot, at 132-142 West 27th Street, was purchased by an LLC linked to Artimus Construction, a construction services company based in Upper Manhattan. It was not clear if Artimus will be the developer of the site or if they will project manage the site on behalf of another company. A spokesperson for the firm was not immediately available for comment.

The seller was Great Neck, N.Y.-based H.K. Operating Company, which appears to have owned the parcel since before property records were publicly available. H.K. could not be reached.

Massey Knakal Realty Services represented both the buyer and the seller in the transaction. Brock Emmetsberger, director of sales at the company, brokered the deal alongside colleagues James Nelson, Mitchell Levine, Andrew Essick, Caroline Hannigan and Matthew Nickerson.

Emmetsberger declined to comment on the deal and the identity of the buyer or seller.

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The parking lot’s operator has a lease that runs through March, 2014. While the lot, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, could currently be developed as-of-right into an 118,500-square-foot office tower, a rezoning might allow for a large scale mixed-use or residential tower, according to the listing.

“The desirability of the Midtown South office market, coupled with the continued expansion of the Manhattan hospitality sector, provide [sic] a unique opportunity for a commercial developer to obtain a sizable site with tremendous frontage in an emerging neighborhood,” the listing said.

The site had been asking $37.5 million. It came on the market in October 2012.

So far, no development plans have been filed with the Department of Buildings, according to a search.