Updated: 2:15 p.m., Jan. 2:
Raber Enterprises has paid $33.5 million for three adjacent commercial lots in Midtown West, and is likely to develop a hotel on the site, The Real Deal has learned.
The deal for 320 West 36th Street, an 8,145 square-foot lot, 321 West 35th Street, a 3,521 square-foot-lot, and 325 West 35th Street, a 1,760 square-foot lot, closed on Dec. 18. The existing site consists of a two-story office and warehouse building located at 321 West 35th Street, a two-story parking garage with rooftop and basement parking located at 320 West 36th Street, and a one-story building used as an entrance into the garage located at 325 West 35th Street.
An executive from Raber who declined to be named said the site would be developed for commercial use. Bob Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, brokered the deal. He said that that given the location — between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in the Special Garment Center District — it was likely that hotels would be developed on the site. “We had over 50 offers on the site,” he said. “Most were from hotel companies or developers.”
The seller was Amon Realty Company, an entity associated with Michael A. Feirstein and Howard Waxman. The catalyst for the deal, Knakal said, was the potential increase in capital gains tax in the New Year, which had led to an “avalanche of transactions in the fourth quarter, and particularly December.” Knakal also arranged an $18 million sale of 1227 Broadway, a four-story Commercial Building On West 30th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, for Amon.
Raber’s recent transactions include the $40.8 million sale — through its entity Landmark Realty — of 178 Canal Street, a three-story, 10,620-square-foot commercial property to Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG management.