[Updated at 7 p.m. with comment from Clearview Cinemas] Three years after West 23rd Street saw one of its two movie theaters shutter, the remaining multiplex has traded hands.
On Jan. 10, Great Neck, L.I.-based developer the Parkoff Organization bought the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas building, at 256-260 West 23rd Street, from Emmes Asset Management Group, The Real Deal has learned. According to city records made public last Wednesday, the building sold for $35 million.
A spokesperson for the seller, an asset manager for pension funds, declined to give reasons for the sale other than to say that “we selectively sell assets when we believe it will provide an attractive return to our capital partners.”
A spokesperson for Clearview indicated that its lease will continue under the new landlord and suggested the theater would not be closing any time soon, but did not specify the terms of the theater’s lease. Parkoff did not return calls requesting comment regarding its plans for the 17,874-square-foot plot.
In 2008, the Chelsea West Cinemas at 333 West 23rd Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues, was leased to the School of Visual Arts for 26 years.
The Chelsea Clearview was part of the sale of a three-building portfolio that also included 657-661 Lexington Avenue, a low-rise office building between 55th and 56th streets, and 177 Dyckman Street, in Inwood, according to the spokesperson for Emmes. The prices for the other buildings were not yet available in city records.
Parkoff has been steadily acquiring buildings in Manhattan recently. Last year the developer bought 431 and 441 Third Avenue, between 30th and 31st streets, for $22 million, and 192-206 Dyckman Street, a mixed-use space not far from the Dyckman property in this portfolio, for $14 million.