A real estate firm of Van Morrison superfans is planning to raze a vacant 5-story building in Tribeca and replace it with condos after purchasing the Warren Street lot for more than $27 million, records show.
SoHo-based real estate company Astral Weeks — the same name as Northern Irish singer-songwriter Morrison’s second studio album — acquired the property at the corner of West Broadway for $27.4 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Wednesday. Private equity firm Urban Standard Capital, headquartered in Tribeca’s Woolworth Building, provided a $19 million loan to facilitate the transaction, records show.
Attorneys David Heymann and Esta Algava-Czik of Long Island-based firm Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone represented Astral Weeks in the transaction. They declined to comment.
Tim Holderbaum, managing director of operations at the developer, told Crain’s Thursday that his team plans to demolish the circa-1930s vacant building that’s now occupying the roughly 5,000-square-foot lot. It goes by the address 80 West Broadway.
Holderbaum said the precise details of the proposed project are not yet finalized, but it will likely include about 25 units with retail on the ground floor. He could not provide an estimated timeline or cost for construction but said he expects the building to come online in about three years.
Astral Weeks was co-founded by principals Raymond and Joseph Roubeni in 2001, and its New York portfolio largely includes projects in Brooklyn. One is currently under construction at 12 Franklin St. in Greenpoint, where the real estate company is converting the 30,000-square-foot property into a neighborhood retail hub.
Astral Weeks bought the Tribeca property from Shai Shamir, co-founder of 6R Capital Group, whose offices are next door on Warren Street, records show. Shamir’s firm, which did not respond to a request for comment, had acquired the lot and two adjacent ones for a combined $36.1 million in 2021.
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