The New School Buys Greenwich Village Property for $153M
By Lauren Elkies Schram January 18, 2017 3:52 pm
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Samson Associates has sold a five-story, 180,000-square-foot Greenwich Village property to The New School for $153 million, property records show. The transaction closed on Jan. 10 and was recorded with the city today.
The seller, an affiliate of self-storage provider Samson Mini Storage and run by the Chira family, put 34-42 West 14th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas on the market last March, The Real Deal reported at the time. Samson owned the site starting in 1985, property records indicate.
“The purchase of this building will expand The New School’s academic space and substantially reduce our operating costs by decreasing our rent obligations,” according to a statement from Tokumbo Shobowale, the school’s chief operating officer. “For now, the building’s commercial tenants will remain, but over the coming years, as leases expire, we will turn the building into a place for teaching and learning on our campus.”
The building features approximately 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space on both West 13th and West 14th Streets, as well as additional air rights, according to information released by Meridian Capital Group. Commercial Observer reported last January that Journeys, the surf- and skate-inspired clothes, shoes and accessories chain, was relocating to the building. Other retail tenants include JackRabbit sports shop, Party City and New York Sports Clubs, and there are office tenants above.
Meridian’s Helen Hwang, Karen Wiedenmann, Brian Szczapa, Jacob Schmuckler and Jenna Catalon represented Samson in the transaction.
A spokesman for Meridian said the brokers were not commenting.
