On February 2021, Delshah acquired the commercial condominium unit at 777 7th Avenue in the Times Square submarket of Manhattan. The Property consists of 22,450 rentable square feet at the corner of 50th and 7th, and has 63 feet of frontage on 7th Avenue and 97 feet of frontage on West 50th Street. In the year’s leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Property was operated by the seller as a multi-tenant, multi-story food court, occupied by TGI Fridays, KFC, Pizza Hut, Nathan's Famous and Tad's Steaks. At acquisition, the Property was 100% vacant.
777 7th was acquired pursuant to a “prepackaged” foreclosure, with Delshah obtaining deed-in-lieu title with the consent of both the existing borrower and lender. By virtue of Delshah’s decade-long relationship with the existing lender, who is one of the largest regional banks in the New York City Metropolitan Area, the opportunity was sourced directly, on an off-market basis, without a broker.
Retail
The purchase price of the Property is $23.5 million, which was 15% discount to the unpaid principal balance of the existing defaulted loan of $27.5 million and a 51% discount to the Property’s September 2019 third-party appraised value of $48 million. As part of the acquisition and restructuring, Delshah negotiated and secured highly favorable seller financing from the existing lender for five years, interest only, with a profit participation above a sales price target. In addition to this accretive acquisition financing, the existing lender also agreed to fund 85% of required future funding, including tenant improvements, leasing commissions and real estate taxes, with the future funding being contingent on a lease being signed.
Delshah’s business plan is to reconfigure the existing space divisions to maximize the value of the highly visible corner space at grade on 7th Avenue, which faces south towards the Times Square Bowtie, and reposition the above and below grade square footage for a national food and beverage operator or other tenant.