In a transaction filed on Jan. 9, an entity going as 605 East 9th Community Holdings LLC bought the property from longtime owner Gregg Singer for $57,267,453, per public records.
The LLC reportedly (per The Real Deal) has ties to Aaron Sosnick, a billionaire hedge fund manager who lives next door in the Christodora House.
Denham Wolf Real Estate Services issued a statement saying that "a philanthropic entity with the purpose of returning the property to community use." (Denham Wolf Real Estate Services did not respond to an email seeking more information.
The bankruptcy auction in early November for the property was canceled. The Real Deal reported that "the property failed to solicit any bids outside of a $55 million credit bid from its lender." Madison Realty Capital sold the loan secured by the property to 605 East 9th Community Holdings LLC.
Through the years, Singer, who bought the building from the city during an auction in 1998 for $3.1 million, wanted to turn the one-time P.S. 64 into a dorm, though those plans never materialized, and the building has sat in disrepair. The 135,000-square-foot landmarked building is zoned for “community facility use,” and any conversion to a condoplex or residential housing would require a zoning variance.
As previously noted, some residents want to see the space used again as a community center, as it was during its time as Charas/El Bohio Community Center. Singer evicted the group on Dec. 27, 2001.
Given Denham Wolf's statement, it appears that may happen someday, though the building needs a tremendous amount of work. Revisit our exclusive walk-through of the space here.
4 comments:
$54 million in profit in just 26 short years. Most families won't see that much money in the course of their entire genealogies. This is a healthy system indeed.
According to court documents filed last year, Singer's project was at least $100 million in debt to over half a dozen lenders.
Same buyer as the Harriman Boys' Club at 10th and A, which was retained for community use -- so hopefully a promising development for the future of this building too!
Would you and Stacie Joy please consider doing an update on the status of CHARAS ? This was your last report on CHARAS and pretty much nobody has done any updates since this report. For example..People have told me their seems to be no active construction going on ? Many in the community , including MORUS and others called it a victory for the community when Singer lost the building. Do they still say this now ? Regardless , it seems that the reality is that nothing much seems changed since CHARAS was bought , at auction , by a new owner ?
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