Hogg Holdings has acquired yet another asset under their growing portfolio -- an $11.4 million acquisition of the site of a former Chinese Christian church. This particular church building also doubled up as the headquarters of one of the only Christian periodical publishing houses over in America. Hogg Holdings is certainly flexing their financial muscle here as a boutique real estate firm, clearly having their emphasis on the development of properties, asset management as well as and transaction consulting. The company on a whole has racked up over $105 million worth of transactions, having earned its stripes among the masses for creating as well as unlocking value not only for its clients, but investors as well.
This time around, their $11.4 million purchase comprises of a six story building located at 48 Allen St. This is close to Hester Street, and word of this particular transaction was first spotted over at the Real Deal. The entire property is pretty large -- we are talking about 12,438 square feet of real estate space on prime land, where it is also commonly referred to as 49 Orchard Street. This particular building is no ordinary building as it has its very own history. The previous owner happened to be the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades, and it was originally listed three years back in 2013 for a cool $15 million, which just goes to show how soft the property market has become since then.
In one listing from Cushman & Wakefield (which was known as Massey Knakal before), it mentioned that “…we anticipate a significant amount of interest from user groups or developers looking to convert the building to residential or a hotel.” It is certainly a viable option, as the property itself comes with approximately 1,400 square feet of unused development rights, and with the right kind of ideas thrown into the mix, it could end up as a pretty interesting boutique hotel, so to speak.
Hogg Holdings has experience in developing luxury buildings, so a hotel is definitely not out of the question. After all, they are looking into the development of 287 East Houston Street at the moment, with that particular address being a luxury condominium project that goes all the way up to 28 stories into the sky. Apart from that, Hogg Holdings is also renovating an existing building which is located at 168 Suffolk Street, where it comprises of not just a couple, but nine apartments in total as well as new retail space.
In a wee bit of trivia for those who are interested, the former premises of the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades is part of the National Register’s Lower East Side Historic District. In the designation report, it mentioned, “1899 Schneider & Herter, Six-story, brick loft building with brick and stone trim. One-story, non-historic addition, facing on Allen Street.” Despite its inclusion in the historic district, there is no protection from any form of demolition, so whether the building will be pulled down to the ground based on what Friends of the Lower East Side shared, and to have a new development start from scratch is anybody’s guess right now.
