Legion Investment, EJS Group Buy Greenwich Village Site

Luxury condo developer Legion Investment Group and EJS Development have bought a development parcel in Greenwich Village for $57.5 million.

The new owners plan to demolish the six-story building at the site, 5 West 13th Street, records show. It was once home to the New York City Human Resources Administration.

The sellers were Philips International, Lawland Properties, Arnold Penner Real Estate and Rhodes Building Management. Maxim Capital provided a $37.5 million loan for the transaction. A Walker & Dunlop team of Aaron Appel and Adam Schwartz arranged the financing.

In 2023, Philips International sold a 75 percent stake in the property for $31 million. It had once marketed the property as a potential 150,000-square-foot office development. The through-block site has 100 feet of frontage on West 13th Street and 75 feet of frontage on West 14th Street.

After a demolition cost estimated at $3 million, the price Legion and EJS paid amounts to $560 per square foot. The median home price in Greenwich village rose more than 9 percent, to $1.4 million, over the 12 months ending in March, according to Redfin.

Homes can fetch much more in the neighborhood, however. A 6,600-square-foot townhouse at 118 West 12th Street recently sold for more than $19 million. New condos can fetch around $3,000 per square foot.

Despite uncertainty in much of New York’s housing market this year, or perhaps because of it, building condos has been a popular play for developers.

Legion recently bought the final waterfront development parcel in Chelsea for $87 million and the final piece of a $95 million Madison Avenue assemblage. It is edging closer to a potentially blockbuster condo project facing Gramercy Park.

EJS Group is building a condominium at 200 East 75th Street — a tetris-like project that makes for a striking image — and a luxury rental in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The company also co-developed the Robert A.M. Stern–designed 150 East 78th Street condo with Midwood Investment and Development.