Zhang Xin made her name abroad as one of the developers behind Soho China, but her next big project is taking her to New York City.
Closer Properties, an affiliate of Xin’s family office, acquired five adjacent parcels on the Upper East Side for $62.5 million in cash, Bloomberg reported. The sites are 150 East 79th Street, 152 East 79th Street, 154 East 79th Street, 1135 Lexington Avenue and 1131 Lexington Avenue, according to a release on the acquisition.
Gregg Winter’s W Financial was the seller of the real estate. The sale of a sixth parcel, at 1133 Lexington Avenue, is expected to close in June, bringing the acquisition cost of the 100,000-square-foot assemblage to $76 million. Avison Young represented the seller.
With a half-dozen sites in hand, Xin plans to pursue her first ground-up development in the city. She’s planning a luxury condominium building with ground-floor retail, projecting demolition to begin in the first quarter of next year.
“Our thesis is to develop boutique-sized, luxury condos in historic districts across New York City like the Upper East Side, West Village, Chelsea and more,” Xin said in an interview.
W Financial acquired the assemblage through a foreclosure sale in February 2023 after HFZ defaulted on a $43.6 million loan. The site offers 71,500 square feet of buildable space.
The Don Filippo pizza restaurant next door, which has served up neighborhood slices for decades, initially agreed to sell to Macklowe Properties, but the agreement was canceled in December 2022. Its presence was once seen as a possible impediment to development, along with a First Republic Bank branch that closed after the business was sold to JPMorgan Chase.
Last year, Xin acquired a townhouse at 45 East 74th Street from Italian developer Valerio Morabito, who absorbed a rare loss in the Upper East Side market.
She’s developed more than 54 million square feet across Beijing and Shanghai during her prolific property development career. She and her husband stepped down from Soho China in 2022 — a year after a scuttled takeover attempt by Blackstone — but she remains on the company board.
Investments in the United States have included the GM Building and Park Avenue Plaza in Manhattan, as well as the Lyrik in Boston. Xin’s family office plans to own, operate and develop in those two cities.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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