Mid-market sales this week: A $34M UES mansion in distress and a $33M SoHo condo

A distress deal led New York City’s mid-market sales last week, as six deals for commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records.

Lender ACRES acquired the Waterfall Mansion at 170 East 80th Street. 

The $34.3 million in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure stemmed from a 2021 lawsuit in which ACRES said owner Kate Junghee Shin defaulted on a $22 million loan. Shin signed over the deed for the property she bought in 2008 for $8.5 million, and spent more than $20 million on renovations to open the Waterfall Mansion and Gallery in 2014.

Below are the other deals ranked by value:

1. Michelle Fontanez paid $33 million to Angela Parisi for the mixed-use building at 545 Broadway in Soho. Pincus Co. reported that the buying entity, Cemt Broadway Inc., is connected to the Marsan family, owner of the fashion brand Brandy Melville. 

2. PD Equities received $30 million for a retail unit at 115 West 31st Street in Penn Station, Manhattan. Retail investor Hi Jong Lee purchased the building last year from Toni Park’s company, which divided the property into three units after acquiring the structure, also known as 110 West 32nd Street, for $37 million.

3. Legion Investment Group paid $22 million for a two-unit building at 1128 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. Richard Basch signed for the selling entities 1128 Madison Avenue LLC and West 1128 Tic LLC. The purchase is the final parcel for Legion’s planned 18-story luxury condo building.

4. An entity connected to a Santa Monica, California company paid $14.5 million to Morgenstern Capital for the 24-unit rental building at 118 Second Avenue in East Village. Steven M. Dark, CEO at One Wealth Partners, signed for the buyer.
   
5. An entity connected to MK Property Management of Brooklyn paid $11.5 million for the 30,000-square-foot industrial building at 31-31 48th Avenue, Queens. The sellers were John J. Perno of Avoca and Thomas Perno of New Hyde Park.