NYC Housing Development Corp. Pays $52.7M for 120 Broadway Commercial Condo

The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Silverstein Properties shook hands on a new deal at 120 Broadway.

HDC paid $52.7 million to make its 109,000-square-foot office at the 40-story tower between Pine and Cedar streets its permanent home, according to city property records. 

The deal converts the second and third floors of the office building HDC previously leased into a commercial condominium, which HDC will own for the duration of its new leasehold condominium agreement with Silverstein, according to property records, a spokesperson for the landlord and sources with knowledge of the deal. 

HDC and Silverstein signed the deal on March 27 and it appeared in property records Monday. Newmark (NMRK)‘s Lance Korman and Kevin Sullivan represented HDC. Korman and Sullivan declined the comment.

The semi-public city agency — which provides tax-exempt bond financing for affordable housing development — signed a lease to relocate its offices to the second and third floors of 120 Broadway in 2022, as Commercial Observer previously reported. 

In the interim, lawyers for both sides got to work drawing up a leasehold condominium deal, according to Silverstein’s Keith Cody, who brokered the deal for the landlord in-house with Joseph Artusa and Harlan Strader.

The condominium conversion sweetens the deal for both sides, making HDC eligible for the nonprofit real estate tax abatement that New York State grants for long-term deals. The exact length of HDC’s leasehold condominium agreement is unclear, but the Silverstein spokesperson said it was longer than 30 years, as required by law.

“These are complicated transactions from a legal standpoint,” Cody said. “Leasehold condos are beneficial for nonprofits, and not all buildings have the ability to do them.” 

And Cody said the developer has the wherewithal to handle the extra legalese, with records showing Silverstein also converted the fifth through seventh floors of the property into four other commercial condo units.

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.