Raphael Toledano, a private investor with offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn, bought a six-story Chelsea building for $41.5 million, The Real Deal has learned. Toledano is looking to make the property “the most high-end and most luxurious building in Chelsea,” and is looking to ask rents of more than $100 per square foot for the units.
Josh Zegen’s and Brian Shatz’s Madison Realty Capital provided $34 million in financing. MRC’s loan provides the buyer with an immediate $29 million to purchase the property, followed by $5 million for planned renovations.
Alice Kenney, a long-time private owner, bought the building — which comes with 16,000 square feet of additional air rights — in 1973.
Toledano said he is planning to add two floors —and a total of roughly 20 units, eight of which will be penthouses — to the building. Of the 39 residential units, 25 are vacant or market-rate, the rest are rent-regulated.
Toledano plans to fully renovate the building and add a doorman and a gym in the basement. The two office units will be turned into “townhouse-style” homes with a separate entrance.
“In this case the borrower needed immediate funding in order to close the acquisition and support renovation plans, Zegen said in a statement. “As an owner of several multifamily assets in Chelsea, we were able to get comfortable with the submarket extremely quickly. This is an instance where our vertically-integrated real estate platform worked seamlessly and quickly to deliver for the borrower.”
ABC Realty’s Bill Hara represented the sellers — an LLC by the name of Alimir Management — and Truman Realty Group’s Ralph Hertz represented the buyer.
The roughly 39,000-square-foot building currently has approximately 39 residential units and two office spaces, Toledano said. The new owner is looking to upgrade the rental property with “condo finishes.”
The property will be named The Devorah at Chelsea, after Toledano’s wife.
Toledano purchased six properties in Brooklyn and three properties on East 13th Street in the last year.