By Gus Saltonstall
The building that housed an Upper West Side garage that was shut down in 2023 due to unsafe conditions sold last week for more than $10 million, according to Traded NY, which keeps track of major real estate sales.
Friedland Properties, which owned the building at 214-216 West 80th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam, sold the address for $10.5 million to the real estate company ZHL Group.
The Upper West Side building was most recently a six-story parking garage, which was shut down by the city in November of 2023 due to “extensive unsafe conditions.” Specifically, the Department of Buildings found “cracked concrete at steel beam encasements and substantially deteriorated concrete slabs with exposed reinforcement.”
The garage was cleared of cars at the time and has remained closed since.
It is unclear what the ZHL Group plans to do with the property, but a sales listing for the building included the following reasons for why a buyer might want to purchase the building.
- “Rare development opportunity within the Upper West Side neighborhood.”
- Several possible uses, allowing for 20,000 square-feet of building, including mixed-use, residential condominiums, or single-use occupancies.
The building was originally constructed in 1906 as a new car room and service garage.
We reached out to ZHL Group, and will update this story if we hear back.
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I’m guessing the residents of the fairly new building next to that one are not going to be excited about living next to a big construction site.
Unless those folks got the very rare “no one will ever building anything in your earshot” guarantee then they suffer along with the rest of us, living in a dynamic, always-changing city.
That new building was a reasonably big construction site not that long ago. And the people in the rowhouse to the east?
At least east of Broadway in the 80s there are limits on what can be built new, so it won’t be an 800 tower — which would mean an actual big construction site.
They should have bought it!
Does anyone have intel on the work happening with the garage at 9 W 100th ? Across from the huge 400 CPW Towers building? I swear they’ve been drilling and hammering on it for 3+ years and it’s still under construction.
Built as Apthorp Motor Car Co., 214-216 W. 80th St. has a very rich history.
https://www.waltergrutchfield.net/apthorp.htm
A historical auto dealership and parking garage?! I can’t think of anything less important to the history of the UWS.
Wasn’t that the garage that had a tie in with Zabars, something like $50 groceries got you two hours for $5? (numbers completely handwaved…)
Yes. Owned by the same family.
If we are going to preserve a majority of the neighborhood and also try to provide housing for the next generation, we have to make sure these kind of sites provide as many homes as possible.
If anything, it will not be affordable. All while urbanists want to only have people who can afford to live on the UWS be here.
I’m confused at this sort of assertion, building more housing means more people of all incomes can afford to live here while not building more housing means only the rich or people who inherit an apartment can live here.
Hopefully the new owner will build new homes instead of car storage.
This is why street parking is such a big issue. Not only do you want to eliminate street parking, but want to go after the garages as well. It is almost like you want to make it difficult for certain types of people to come here without saying that openly. Sure the UWS may have 5 subway lines (4 on weekends), but making 1 or more transfers and having to not have the convenience of one’s own car, unless they can take a rideshare car (which is reasonably affordable only within Manhattan) really makes for a city that wants to push certain kinds of people out. Additional residences will not make a dent in rent prices anyways.
This building is literally a block away from a subway stop. It has the capacity to be converted into housing for people who likely would never need a car.
Also, if anyone wants to check it out this is 214 West 80 St Block: 1227 Lot: 43
in the City systems. They are paying almost $200,000/year in property taxes. Not sure if that would go up if the lot converted to a residential tax class.
Yes, *we* want to push certain kinds of people out. *We want* that so, so much, that *we*, in our omnipotent control, let a 100-yr-old garage deteriorate to the point of being unusable, and then *we* sold it to a developer, which may or may not build a residential building in its place, because it’s more lucrative to them (alas, not to *us*) – but also because their agenda aligns with *ours* (*we* confirmed with them). They have all the time and money in the world to focus on pushing “certain kinds of people” out of the UWS, just like *we* do.
What, in the world, are you talking about?!
That is entirely plausible.
Some people here just hate cars. Either they have lived in the city their whole lives and never explored the great big world off the island of Manhattan, or they were denied a shiny red Miata when they got their driver’s license and thus don’t want anyone else to have pleasure either. Either way, it is very narrow-minded. And once again, it is this way of thinking that feeds Fox News with stories that make the rest of America hate us and elect a nightmare like Trump.
Yes, cars are not perfect and have negative externalities. But the anti-car brigade is childish.
Also, I would argue to sell the property for the maximum amount possible to generate as much tax revenue as possible then use that tax revenue to fund more housing in less expensive neighborhoods. This is not being NIMBY. This is economics and using money (a scarce resource) efficiently.
Leon,
For what it is worth, I’ve lived in Manhattan my whole life and don’t drive – but am not lobbying against cars. My various relatives and classmates still in Manhattan are not in the “anti-car” group.
Seems to me the “anti-car” advocates are the suburban “transplants” (and likely their relatives are still driving back in the suburbs 🙂 ).
Indeed much of the leadership of the bike lobby etc are not originally from NYC – and I think reasonable to assume that most grew up in car/driving areas.
And if people need to commute from elsewhere to the UWS, there should be a place for them and many times it is easier by car than by public transit.
The entrance is stunning. Doubt anyone will have the foresight to keep it.
Hopefully they will tear it down and build new apartments there.
What is the incentive for a private developer to develop low income….I mean affordable housing whatever that means? Because they are altruistic? Here is an idea, someone in the community take the lead on fundraising to create a way to buy these space, fund the renovations and conversions, we can set it up as a 501(3) c, so everyone can make charitable contributions to the fund, and we can collectively own this property while ensuring it always stays as affordable housing to maintain the spirit of our neighborhood? Who wants to serve as our first coop president?
If I could go back in time and get into any business in the 1950’s ,it would have been parking garages .. The cash, the real estate values and limited staff needed to run a garage ( hardly any payroll ) — Amazing
This particular parking garage was so lucrative that the owner let the building fall into disrepair rather than spend the money to keep it up. Sounds like a gold mine.
Ida P. Melnick wrote:
“What is the incentive for a private developer to develop low income….I mean affordable housing whatever that means? Because they are altruistic”
Well there are existent tax abatement schemes such as 421-a and successor that offer developers decent incentives to add portion of “affordable” or “low income” rent regulated housing. In 35 years when abatement expires so will rent regulation of said units and LL will then have fully market rate building.
There are all sorts of ways development of this property can go, some of them will surely wipe the smiles off certain person’s faces.
Consider this property is zoned for residential/SRO hotel as of right. As UWS has seen recently with a certain once private school that was made into a homeless shelter there’s money to be had from that sector.
Land isn’t going anywhere baby… Those who develop or own rental housing often are in it for long haul. Their heirs (children, grand-children, great grand-children…. or other family) will reap benefits of a property long after rest of us have gone onto the other place.
All we hear about are cries for substantially more low income housing yet look what goes up? Do you consider homeless shelters part of a low income housing strategy? I see them as a temporary stop gap for people in transition. They aren’t permanent housing or a model that really promotes long term integration into a neighborhood. Do you really believe the goal long term is for the former Calhoun School to remain a homeless shelter and this is why the financial firm bought it?
It may have escaped some people’s notice, but parking garages and lots have been dwindling in Manhattan and elsewhere in NYC for about two decades. In real estate game such properties are low hanging fruit, no pesky residential tenants especially rent controlled or stabilized to move out and so forth.
When city rezoned Chelsea/Flower District dozens of parking lots and garages vanished, all turned into residential housing. Ditto for lower Manhattan areas of FiDi, Tribeca, SoHo, West Village, Chinatown, East Village, Lower East Side…..
Remember 219 West 77th? For ages that ancient parking garage was there until land it sat upon was worth far more than simply having a parking garage upon it,
https://michaelminn.net/newyork/areas/stable-row/219-west-77th/index.html
219-223 W 77th St is now luxury condos…
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/219-223-W-77th-St-New-York-NY/9525500/
Great location for affordable housing.