A 40,000-square-foot West Village parking garage primed for residential conversion is set to hit the market at 125 Perry Street, The Real Deal has learned.
While sources said the sellers are looking for a record price — one noted upwards of $60 million — others said that the market would be tapped out at around $1,200 a foot, bringing the price to just under $50 million.
The West Village Housing Development Corporation, a co-operative organization, has tapped Massey Knakal Realty Services to sell the property, which currently houses the 39,628-square-foot parking facility.
When contacted by The Real Deal, Bob Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal, confirmed that the firm would be marketing the building. He declined to comment on pricing or reveal further details of the offering.
The pentagon-shaped property could be converted to a condominium or rental development or even to a single-family home, sources said. The property has 10,000-square-foot floor plates, 92 feet of frontage on Perry Street and 76 feet on Greenwich Street; ceiling heights are between 15 and 16 feet.
Prices for condos in the neighborhood have been reaching all-time highs, it was previously reported. The average price for a West Village condominium was $2,171 per square foot for the past 90 days, according to a report published today by CityRealty. That figure is up 5.8 percent over the prior 90-day period.
At the Witkoff Group’s 150 Charles Street, one block away from the Perry Street site, sales have averaged close to $2,500 per square foot over the last 180 days, according to StreetEasy. The remaining units at the property are asking an average of $3,749 per square foot.
Ron Cohen of investment sales firm Besen & Associates told The Real Deal that “gems” of existing buildings ripe for conversion were uncommon and could command prices “in nosebleed territory.”
Likewise, comparable sales in the neighborhood are rare, Cohen said, pointing to the sale of a single-story retail building at 130 Seventh Avenue South, which Besen sold for $6.25 million, or $620 per buildable square foot, in December. Architecture and development firm Flank paid $740 per square foot for a former assisted living facility at 607 Hudson Street in 2011, which it later developed into a high-end condominium named the Abingdon. If it were to trade for $60 million, the Perry Street property would have achieved $1,500 a foot.
The WVHDC appears to have owned the property since 2006, when it bought it from Island Capital Group as part of a larger portfolio of buildings, public records show.