Japanese Investor Buys 43-45 West 55th Street for $12.25M
By Celia Young June 24, 2021 4:55 pm
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The co-founder of Japanese music company Being Inc. has purchased 43-45 West 55th Street for $12.25 million, Commercial Observer has learned.
Daiko Nagato, under the entity Dreamaps Estate NY, purchased the 15,000-square-foot Midtown apartment building from Double E Realty. The property holds 11 studio and one-bedroom apartments, three of which are rent-regulated, with a NatureWorks and Five Guys located in the ground-floor retail level.
Nagato may be considering a restaurant concept on the second floor, which previously held the Japanese restaurant Katsu-Hama that closed, said Lee & Associates NYC’s George Steffani, who was part of the team that brokered the deal for the buyer. But Blue Pacific Capital‘s Masa Ikeda, who brokered the deal for the buyer, said Nagato was still unsure on how to use the space.
Nagato will likely build out the second floor and may occupy a portion of the building, something that’s becoming more common as the city recovers from the pandemic, Steffani said.
“We’re seeing a lot of people, who see the option to own the space that they’re going to occupy right now, coming in [and] looking at our spaces,” Steffani told CO. “Pre-pandemic, that wasn’t really the target demographic when you were looking to sell real estate; it was more investment funds [and] local landlords.”
The all-cash deal for the building bounded by West 55th Street and Avenue of the Americas closed on June 2, said Ikeda. Nagato also recently purchased a 4,108-square-foot property in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii for nearly $5 million, according to Pacific Business News. That transaction closed last month.
Lee NYC’s Steffani, Chris Varjan, Vickram Jambu and Jonathan Braun represented the seller, while the buyer was represented by Ikeda of Blue Pacific Capital.
Update: The story has been updated to include information from the broker for the buyer, Ikeda.
