A coveted Gramercy Park assemblage hit a maze of obstacles as Savills’ Geoffrey Newman started stitching collectively a deal for Legion Funding Group’s Victor Sigoura.
The six-property assemblage supplied a uncommon alternative for Gramercy Park frontage. However a 34-unit co-op, an adjoining constructing with rent-stabilized tenants, complicated zoning guidelines and environmental contamination made it way more difficult than typical assemblage offers.
After two failed offers with totally different consumers and 13 years of wrangling by Newman, Legion and accomplice Gindi Capital closed in 2025 on the ultimate two properties within the assemblage. The marathon effort was topped on Monday with business actual property’s high honor: the Actual Property Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Deal of the 12 months.
“I’ve been doing this for a very long time … however I’ve by no means learn a submission the place I actually misplaced observe of the variety of ingenious options required to allow the transaction to maneuver ahead,” mentioned Branton Realty Companies’ Woody Heller, who offered the award in a room filled with brokers at Lever Home.
The deal included buying air rights and negotiating a cantilever that will lengthen over parts of the co-op constructing, serving to push shareholders towards a collective sale. The deal triggered two lawsuits when the co-op board and shareholders challenged the association, forcing Newman to renegotiate the transaction from scratch.
Negotiations stretched over a number of years whereas Newman additionally navigated tax problems tied to co-op dissolution. The adjoining property added one other layer of complexity resulting from its rent-regulated tenants. And zoning constraints as a result of so-called Sliver Law required further maneuvering.
Because the deal neared the end line, a former dry cleaner was discovered to have contaminated the location, triggering state environmental oversight and placing the acquisition financing in danger. Quite than delay closing, Newman enrolled the property within the Brownfield Cleanup Program and organized a state-supervised cleanup.
The builders are planning a 20-story condominium that’s shaping as much as be the most important new improvement alongside the park in a century.
“This deal required 13 years of persistence, numerous particular person negotiations and the power to resolve one unimaginable downside after one other,” Newman mentioned.
Learn extra
Legion Investment Group, Gindi finalize Gramercy Park assemblage
Victor Sigoura plans biggest Gramercy Park development in over a decade
Court kills Gramercy air rights deal for new condo project
