Kushner Cos. has purchased a nearly 40% stake in a Lincoln Square school building for just over $10 million, city records show, as the real estate firm indelibly linked to President Donald Trump otherwise largely parts ways with its Manhattan portfolio, most of which was concentrated in the East Village.
The Fifth Avenue-based firm, currently run by CEO Laurent Morali, purchased a 17.9% stake in 227 W. 61st St. for $6 million from longtime landlord David Berley of Walter & Samuels, according to a deed that appeared in the city register this week. This followed the company’s $4.4 million purchase of a 21.3% stake in the property from a separate entity just months prior. Kushner Cos. made both transactions under a limited liability company named Sixty One Associates, records show. PincusCo first reported news of the deal.
The 3-story, roughly 75,000-square-foot building between Amsterdman and West End avenues is occupied by West End Secondary School, a city public school. Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the city’s School Construction Authority that manages Department of Education campuses throughout the five boroughs, declined to comment on the transactions but said the authority maintains a long-term lease for the site that doesn’t expire until 2035.
It is unclear what Kushner Cos. has in store for the property, which has an approximate market value of about $30 million, according to city records. Walter & Samuels bought the site for $31.2 million in 2005 with vague plans for a residential development, according to documents at the time outlining the operating agreement.
There are no permits on file with the Department of Buildings indicating more recent plans for a residential development, but an unrelated permit submitted this week for the replacement of sprinklers references the development of Amsterdam apartments and a 6-story residential building. The 22,525-square-foot lot is also zoned for residential, records show, and it comes with 160,000 square feet of buildable space, The Real Deal reported in 2017.
Kushner Cos. was previously helmed by Jared Kushner, husband to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, until he stepped down in 2017 to become an advisor to the current and former commander-in-chief. Its current president is Nicole Kushner Meyer, Jared’s sister. The acquisition comes as the company has unloaded about a third of its portfolio of three-dozen properties in Lower Manhattan and made a point in recent years of venturing into the Southeast and Sunbelt regions of the country, Crain’s previously reported.
Neither Kushner Cos. nor Walter & Samuels responded to requests for comment by press time.
