Gemini Unloads Bryant Park Development Site for $19M
By Rebecca Baird-Remba May 4, 2017 5:08 pm
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Gemini Real Estate Asset Management has sold off a commercial development site at 36 West 38th Street, which was the last of four properties to be auctioned off as part of the company’s bankruptcy.
The sale hit public records today for $19.3 million. The vacant plot between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas hit the auction block in December 2016 for exactly that price, Commercial Observer reported last year. The auction was held this January. It’s unclear what firm purchased the property, but the signer on the deed is Joginder Sharma of Onboard Hospitality LLC.
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York administered the sale and retained Cushman & Wakefield and RobertDouglas to market the property. The 4,345-square-foot property is zoned for commercial and industrial development, and the city won’t allow residential construction on the site unless the new owner seeks a rezoning.
The buyer could move forward with Gemini’s plans for a 19-story, 114-key hotel, which were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings in 2014.
“It’s an interesting site because while a hotel would seem to be logical use, it’s also suitable for a boutique office building,” C&W’s Robert Knakal, who was marketing the site, told CO last year.
Gemini purchased the lot for $13.5 million in January 2013, according to public records.
In 2015 and 2016, the North Carolina-based firm sold three other properties—the Wyndham Garden at 37 West 24th Street, the Best Western Seaport at 33 Peck Slip and the Jade Hotel at 52 West 13th Street.
Neither Gemini nor the brokers responded to requests for comment.
