Acquisition
Off-market sourcing, screening and due diligence across New York City — from first call to closing.
Most of what the firm buys is never listed. Opportunities come through owners, estates and brokers the firm has dealt with for years, are screened against four situations before any further work is spent, and are taken through diligence and contract by the same team that underwrote them.
A screening read on every opportunity considered; a written investment memo for each one taken forward, with the firm's own underwriting, the risks named and a recommendation; the diligence file; and the closing statement.
What reaches the firm.
Four channels, one intake. Every opportunity, whichever way it arrives, is logged and screened the same way.
Direct approaches from owners considering a sale, often before they have decided to list.
Family and estate situations where timing, tax and a clean closing matter more than the last dollar.
A small number of brokers who know what the firm buys and bring it the right thing first.
Submissions through the site and the firm's own outreach to owners in buildings it has already studied.
Every opportunity gets a written screen and a reply, including the ones the firm passes on.
Owners and brokers with an opportunity can submit it here.
What the firm buys into.
Four situations, each with its own underwriting logic. An opportunity that fits none of them is passed on quickly, however attractive the price.
Ground-up
A site, or a building whose value is in the land beneath it. The play is the zoning envelope, the cost to build and the market at delivery.
Unused rights
A building carrying development rights it has never used. The play is the enlargement — if the marginal cost of the added floors clears what they will earn, which it often does not.
Conversion
Industrial, commercial or institutional space whose highest use has changed. The play is the change of use and what the structure will allow.
Special situation
Distress, succession, partnership disputes, stalled projects. The play is a clean resolution the other parties cannot provide themselves.
The one-page read.
Five questions, answered in writing before anyone spends a day on diligence. Most opportunities stop here.
- 01
The site
What it is, where it is, what the zoning allows as of right and with what approvals. The lot, the envelope, the constraints.
- 02
The play
Which of the four situations it is, and what specifically the firm would do with it that the current owner cannot or will not.
- 03
The basis
The all-in basis per buildable square foot at the asking price, against the comparables the firm already tracks in the submarket.
- 04
The exit
What is built or converted, who buys or rents it, and at what price — against closed comparables, not aspirations.
- 05
The reasons to pass
Written down every time. A screen that cannot name the reasons to pass has not been done.
Four workstreams, one file.
Run in parallel during the diligence period, by the firm with outside counsel and engineers it has used before. Each finding changes a number in the underwriting or ends the deal.
- Title
- Chain of title, liens, easements, violations and open permits, with counsel. Anything that cannot be cleared at closing is priced or walked.
- Zoning
- The as-of-right envelope, overlays, landmark status and any prior approvals, by L3CG Advisors. The buildable area in the underwriting is the zoning result, not the broker's number.
- Environmental
- Phase I, and Phase II where the history calls for it. Remediation, if any, becomes a hard-cost line with a contingency of its own.
- Building condition
- Structure, envelope, systems and code status, with the firm's engineers. For an enlargement, whether the existing structure can carry the added floors is settled here.
From offer to keys.
Managed by the firm, with the partner kept current at each step.
- 01
Offer
A written offer at the basis the screen supports, with the conditions stated.
- 02
Contract
Negotiated with counsel: price, deposit, diligence period, closing conditions.
- 03
Deposit
Placed in escrow on signing. The diligence period begins.
- 04
Diligence period
The four workstreams run. Findings adjust the underwriting or trigger the exit.
- 05
Clear to close
Title cleared, financing committed, entities and accounts in place, capital called.
- 06
Closing
Keys and title. The first capital-call milestone is met and the project moves to Entitlement.