Garment Center building is sold by Eastern Consolidated

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 20, 2000

Eastern Consolidated Properties, Inc, as exclusive agent has sold the 113,000 square foot commercial building at 347 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in the heart of Manhattan's Garment Center.

Brian Ezratty, Vice Chairman of Eastern and Scott Ellard, Director acted on behalf of the long-term ownership, which consisted of various family interests from around the country. According to Ezratty, "We remained in continuous contact with local members of the ownership group for well over a year, discussing the appropriate timing and strategy for putting the property on the market.

In the autumn of last year, a consensus was reached by all of the interested parties to sell the property and a "beauty contest" was held to select a sales agent. "We were happy to win the assignment, continued Ezratty, and have the opportunity to market such a substantial asset with tremendous upside in the Garment Center District. The area is now experiencing phenomenal growth and the property has significant potential to be repositioned and capitalize on that growth."

As is often the case with traditional family ownership of real estate, the various interests in 347 West 36th Street became divided between more and more people as they were transferred to different generations. The more people that were involved, the more widespread the interests became geographically. Of the local family members one was from Manhattan, one from Brooklyn and another from Southampton. Others hail from Hartford, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, Boynton Beach, Florida and as far away as Dallas, Texas.

The purchaser was a partnership of mostly local players that consolidated the ownership interests and now manages the Property for their own account. Winoker Realty, as investment advisor, coordinated the acquisition of the asset on behalf of Rossrock LLC and other Manhattan-based investors. The partnership bested a field of very capable bidders, paying $10.2 million and betting on the continued growth in the rental market in the area. Rents within the Garment Center have traditionally hovered between $8 and $10 per square foot, especially in the Preservation Areas where conversion of space to office use has remained restricted. Recently however, rents have risen to the low to mid $20's per square foot between Eighth and Ninth Avenues where the property is located.

Gary Kleinman, Esq. of Solomon & Weinberg represented the seller in the transaction and Thomas L. Fuerth and Andy Schwab of Snow Becker Krauss, P.C. represented the purchasers.