Just 18 months after purchasing the East West Bank Building at 77 Bowery for $20 million, Jonathan Zamir’s Keystone Equities is in contract to sell the Chinatown building’s retail condominium for $12.5 million, according to a source familiar with the deal. The retail condo at the eight-story, 40,700-square-foot property, holds about 3,700 square feet on the ground floor and 2,026 square on the mezzanine floor, as well as about 7,850 square feet of cellar and sub-cellar space.
Chaim Cahane of Forte Capital Management was the sole broker on the deal. The source said the buyer is a private investor who made the purchase through a 1031 exchange, which allows an investor to defer capital gains taxes if the proceeds from the sale of one property, which has been owned for at least a year, are used to buy another similar property within 180 days. The condo is leased at an annual rent of $625,000 per year to East West Bank. Zamir declined to comment. This isn’t the first time the investor has milked the growing demand for Chinatown retail. In January, Keystone sold a 16,800-square-foot retail condo at Nearby 202 Canal Street to Crane Partners Asset Management for $36 million, after purchasing the the entire 47,551-square-foot property for $41.25 million in August.