Residential Firm Takes Development Site for $20M

NEW YORK CITY-Senior Living Options Inc. has acquired a 50-foot wide, 4,960-sf vacant parcel diagonally across from the Empire State Building for $20 million. The firm plans to construct a 100,000-sf residential building on the site.

McSam Hotel LLC sold the site on Fifth Avenue and East 35th Street after deciding not to construct a hotel on the site, according to Eastern Consolidated’s Alan P. Miller, who arranged the sale. Lee Odell Real Estate collaborated with Miller, who had closed several deals with Senior Living.

Miller calls the site “an extremely valuable parcel” due to its location and because it’s zoned for multiple uses. “In truth, the land never really came to market, because the seller realized it would be more fiscally prudent, given today’s heavy demand for apartment buildings, to sell to a residential developer, rather than to develop a hotel on the site.”

McSam originally purchased site in May 2000. At that time, a five-story commercial building owned and tenanted by the Building Service Employees International Union, occupied the site. The building was razed in preparation to construct a 27-story hotel, but those plans changed after 9/11. Earlier this year, McSam purchased 373 Fifth Ave., which shares the same zoning lot with 1-3 E. 35th St. That acquisition allowed McSam to increase the bulk that could be utilized on East 35th Street.

With proceeds from the sale, Queens-based McSam has made several more land acquisitions in order to build moderately priced hotels in Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown. The firm has developed 10 hotels with 2,000 rooms in the last five years. Brian Wrynn, Esq. represented McSam in-house, while Eric H. Seltzer Esq. of Gilbride, Tusa, Last & Spellane acted for Senior Living.