Adellco Nabs Bulk Condo Sale At Flatiron Conversion

Adellco snagged a bulk buyer for all 20 condos at its Flatiron conversion project, The Real Deal has learned.

The buyer, which the developer identified as a private family office, agreed to buy the units and the commercial space at the 114 East 25th Street property for $71 million, on par with the $73 million sellout noted in the building’s offering plan.

The developer in February announced its plans to soft launch sales at the office-to-residential conversion, known as the Armorie, in the spring, with the bulk buyer coming forward roughly a week after the sales team, led by the Corcoran Group’s Hottinger Team, started quietly marketing the units.

The deal has not yet landed in public records. Founder and CEO Matthew Adell declined to share details on the buyer’s specific identity but noted that the purchaser wanted to acquire a “portfolio of assets for their next generation” and was motivated by a “commitment to the New York market.”

The developer expects to complete construction on the project by the first quarter of 2026. Asking prices for the building’s units ranged from $1.5 million to $7 million.

Amenities in the building — once a publishing house and, most recently, a shared office space — include a gym, roof deck and lounge.

Adellco bought the building from crowdfunding firm Prodigy Network and Shorewood Real Estate Group for $41.3 million five years ago. The developer secured a $30.5 million mortgage last year, originated by Arbor Realty Trust.

Adellco also converted the historic Upper East Side hotel known as the Wales into 21 luxury condos. The building at 1295 Madison Avenue sold out earlier this year after launching sales in 2021. The development’s five-bedroom penthouse snagged a nearly $19 million deal, down from its initial $23 million asking price.

The conversion factor

Boutique conversion projects elsewhere in Manhattan have commanded speedy sellouts. All but one of the 14 units at the Surrey, the Reuben Brothers’ redevelopment of the famed Upper East Side hotel, found buyers within four months of its sales launch last fall. Only the building’s penthouse, asking $50 million, remains.

New York has the largest pipeline of office-to-residential conversions in the country, according to a February report from Rent Cafe, a rise fueled by pandemic-era office vacancies and tax exemptions available to developers who designate at least a quarter of their units as affordable.

Though the city has logged its fair share of success stories, some developers’ big bets on conversions, particularly in the Financial District, haven’t been as seamless.

Unsold condo units have been piling up in the Financial District, as condo conversion projects such as Harry Macklowe’s One Wall Street and LCOR’s Broad Exchange continue to languish on the market.

Though One Wall Street launched sales about four years ago, only about 20 percent of the building’s 566 units had sold by March, according to The Real Deal’s analysis of property records.

On the rental side, Nathan Berman’s MetroLoft landed in hot water with its lenders last year when the firm failed to pay off a $265 million loan and $250 million mortgage at two of its downtown projects, though Berman attributed the debt troubles to the buildings being over-leveraged and not their status as conversions.

The developer sold one of the buildings, 20 Broad, to its lender earlier this year and told TRD earlier this year that it planned to bring in a partner at 180 Broad Street to help manage the debt. But earlier this month, the special servicer filed a pre-foreclosure action against Metro Loft.