By Sarah Trefethen
There’s still a gem or two for smaller developers in Manhattan. Marc Shore found a rare opportunity on West 47th Street, and plans to turn it into a new, six-unit condominium building.
A broker from Eastern Consolidated brought him the listing for a vacant building with 25 ft. of frontage between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, he told the members of the Real Estate Networking & Transactions group on Tuesday morning.
“To get a building in prime Manhattan that’s going to be delivered vacant, it’s just a rare commodity,” Shore said.
“We went after it pretty aggressively, put an offer it, paid whatever the seller wanted us to pay, and we’re closing next week and we intend to do a high-end residential condo project.” The planned building will include six full-floor apartments, including a two-story triplex on the lower floors complete with a parking space and yard, he said, and the upper floor will be a duplex with exclusive roof access. Each floor will be about 1,400 s/f.
Shore developed Tower 31 on 31st Street in 2003, and his company, Shore Assets owns and manages approximately 500 apartments, several retail stores and a parking garage. But in recent years, it has struggled to find new properties in Manhattan, he said.
“There’s so much money in the marketplace looking for opportunities, looking for yield. They see Manhattan as this island of opportunity and the prices just keep going up,” he said.
The block where Shore plans to build is just off Times Square, lined with trees and largely residential. The Salvation Army has a community center on the block, and there nearby school. Zoning limits buildings to 66 feet, according to Shore.
“It certainly has an element of risk from the standpoint of marketing,” he said.
Shore hopes to start construction in January or February next year, he said, and deliver the building in 2015.
