Walnut Hill Flips Chelsea Building for $80M-Plus, Making 25 Percent Profit
By Lauren Elkies Schram April 8, 2014 1:24 pm
reprintsWalnut Hill Group, which purchased 31 West 27th Street from Sharif El-Gamal for $65 million in 2012, has sold the building for $80.8 million following an unsolicited offer from Westbrook Partners, Albert Hwang, a founding managing principal of Walnut Hill Group, told Commercial Observer.
“It was a good price,” Mr. Hwang said. “We like the building. We definitely bought it with the intention to have it long term.”
San Francisco-based Walnut Hill sold the Cheslea building, between Broadway and Avenue of the Americas, on March 28 and the deal was recorded with the city last night.
Mr. El-Gamal, CEO of SoHo Properties, purchased the 12-story, 108,594-square-foot office building for $45.7 million in October 2009, Commercial Observer previously reported.
Walnut Hill is on the hunt for other properties and is still a 90 percent owner of the Holiday Inn Express hotel building at 15 West 45th Street in Times Square, Mr. Hwang said.
Westbrook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.