New Empire Corporation in Contract to Buy 4 West 43rd Street for $51M

More housing could be coming to Midtown Manhattan. 

Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Corporation, a New York City-based developer of midsize residential and mixed-use buildings, has entered into a contract to acquire the seven-story office property at 4 West 43rd Street near Bryant Park for $51 million, from seller The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, court records pending approval show. 

The seller, also known as Unification Church and whose members are often referred to as “Moonies” after founder Sun Myung Moon, filed a petition in New York Supreme Court on April 16 to seek judicial approval for the sale of the 72,568-square-foot property to New Empire. 

James Nelson, Alexandra Marolda, Brandon Polakoff, Charles Kinglsey and Eric Karmitz from Avison Young are the brokers leading the sale of 4 West 43rd Street. Spokespeople for New Empire and Avision Young did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Unification Church officials could not be reached for comment. 

4 West 43rd Street was designed by Clarence S. Luce for David H. King Jr., and built in the 1890s, according to the property website. The building was sold to Columbia University in 1916 following King’s death and was used as the Columbia University Club until 1972. The Unification Church acquired the property in 1975 to use as its headquarters.

Unification Church leaders began seeking a buyer for the property in 2024, pitching it as an office-to-residential conversion and drawing 16 offers ranging from $20 million to $47 million by the end of that year, according to PincusCo, which first reported news of the pending deal. The building was put on the market not long after New York passed the 485x tax abatement program, which offers developers tax incentives to build residential properties so long as a certain percentage is set aside as affordable units, though the program has received sharp criticism from the real estate industry since passing.

“We’ve seen very few large-scale development sites for sale since the sunsetting of the 421a tax abatement,” Polakoff said in a 2024 statement announcing the plan to sell the building. “Since the passing of 485x and the future possibilities around the City of Yes, developers are more eager to get off the sidelines.” 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.