Nobody knows the brick-and-terracotta side streets between Penn Station and Hudson Yards better than Jeffrey Gural and Brian Steinwurtzel at GFP Real Estate, whose family firm has operated Garment Center lofts since the 1950s. GFP paid $54 million—a clean $300 per gross square foot—to buy the 180,000-square-foot tower at 330 West 38th Street, shaving 38.6 percent off the $88 million price recorded in June 2018. When the deed closed on January 12, 2026, GFP Real Estate (Jeffrey Gural and Brian Steinwurtzel) had officially taken down 330 West 38th Street from ブラックstone / EQ Office Affiliate for $54 million, with Newmark brokering the trade.

Look past the headline figure and the story is all about the basis reset. The 180,000-square-foot building last traded in June 2018 for $88 million. Stepping in at $300 a square foot shaves 38.6 percent off that prior valuation, giving GFP Real Estate (Jeffrey Gural and Brian Steinwurtzel) a margin of safety that would have been unthinkable at the top of the cycle. Even better for the buyers, the in-place rent roll hands them a verified 7.40 percent going-in cap rate from day one.

At $300 a Foot, Pre-War Lofts Can Undercut Every Neighbor on Rent

How you structure the debt on a Manhattan acquisition matters almost as much as what you pay for the deed. Aareal Capital Corporation stepped up with a $35.1 million senior loan—representing 65 percent loan-to-value—while the buyers wrote a $18.9 million equity check behind it.

Rather than extinguishing the seller's old note and originating a scratch mortgage, the buyers and Aareal Capital Corporation kept the existing mortgage wrapper alive through a Consolidation, Extension, and Modification Agreement, or CEMA. Because New York City levies a roughly 2.8 percent mortgage recording tax on new commercial debt, that single piece of legal plumbing saved the deal upwards of $0.98 million at the closing table—cash that stays in the property's capex and leasing reserve instead of going to the Department of Finance.

From Our Desk

When we look at 330 West 38th Street on our placement desk at Light Tower Group, the lesson for New York sponsors comes down to the marriage of entry basis and lender selection. GFP Real Estate (Jeffrey Gural and Brian Steinwurtzel) didn't try to fight the tape—they bought Hudson Yards / Garment District footage at $300 a square foot and paired it with the exact lender bucket built for this business plan. With a $300-a-foot basis and a 65 percent CEMA facility from Aareal Capital, GFP can sign profitable leases at $48 a foot while neighboring towers with $800-a-foot debt loads are still underwater.