Massey Knakal has arranged the $4.7 million sale of a mixed-use loft building at 57 Grand Street, home to the popular SoHo watering hole Toad Hall, The Commercial Observer has learned.
Located between West Broadway and Wooster Street in Manhattan’s SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, the 4,422-square-foot, four-story building has been home to Toad Hall for over 20 years.
“Competition was fierce for this charming SoHo building,” said Massey Knakal’s Robert Burton, who exclusively handled the transaction. “I was honored to receive the call from the owner, who had owned the building with her family for more than 30 years. It was a smooth transaction from start to finish.”
Ira Lifshutz, who closed six transactions with Massey Knakal in 2012, purchased the property, and his past endeavors signal a repositioning of the building, which houses three upper floors.
“Ira is a very active investor well-known at Massey Knakal, who always keeps his word,” Mr. Burton said. “He loves to buy stuff and reposition it, and sometimes, several years down the road, he sells it.”
The ground-floor bar features a mix of exposed brick walls, dark-wood fixtures and a mish-mash of mirrors, toad statues and a motto posted on the register: “be nice or leave.”
“It’s a very nice bar and social gathering point,” Mr. Burton said. “It has a nice skylight in the rear and a very nice ambience.”
A pool table is also host to a Monday night league, a varied wine list and a range of reasonably-priced beers.
“Toad Hall is a fairly fascinating thing in the New York night life scene,” wrote Yelp reviewer Carson E. from Brooklyn. “It’s a place in SoHo that you can actually walk into any night of the week and there will be no line, lots of room, and plenty of moderately priced drinks to choose from.”
“The place is divey but not gross, not tiny but not cavernous, and decorated with toads but not in an obsessive way,” added Jen S. “Halfway through my first visit, I decided that Toad Hall is my favorite bar in New York.”
