Feldman’s HFZ adds to NoMad assemblage with $30M buy

Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group picked up a NoMad property for $30 million, adding another piece to an assemblage where sources say the developer is planning a nearly 600,000-square-foot office building designed by Bjarke Ingels.

HFZ bought two lots at 20-22 West 30th Street from investor Henry Chen for $29.8 million, property records filed with the city Thursday show. A representative for the developer could not be immediately reached.

A pair of five-story buildings spanning roughly 20,000 square feet sits on the two properties, but if HFZ were to demolish the structures, the lots would hold roughly 50,000 square feet of development rights.

The properties are most likely part of an assemblage Feldman’s company is putting together on the block. At the same time HFZ purchased the properties, Canadian lender Otera Capital Investmentsthe refinanced eight of the developers properties on the block and added new debt to the tune of $147.7 million.

HFZ paid $75.43 million in 2013 to buy a quartet of properties from the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The developer filed plans in October with the city Department of Buildings to construct a 34-story, 301,167-square-foot office building on the site with an address at 3 West 29th Street.

The project has been something of a bumpy road for Feldman and his company. Neighborhood residents had lobbied to get the Bancroft Building at 3 West 29th Street landmarked, but they failed and HFZ demolished the building in 2015, agreeing to create a park in its place.

In 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the green-light for a plan that would have HFZ restore the Gilsey House and the Marble Collegiate Church — which sit on either end of the block — in exchange for the properties’ air rights.

In March, HFZ tacked on another piece to the assemblage, paying $54.3 million for 9 West 29th Street.

Feldman remains one of the city’s most active assemblers, even as others have hit the brakes amid a slow investment sales market.

The Naftali Group, after sitting on the sidelines for about two years, is working on a big assemblage on the Upper East Side.