ASB Capital and George Comfort Sell 168 Canal Street in Chinatown for $40.5M

A joint venture has acquired 168 Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood for $40.5 million — a steep markdown from the $61.9 million the sellers paid for the property back in 2013.

The new ownership group is made up of four LLCs tied to Joshua Mandelberger, Diana Carone, Keith Kantrowitz, and Nashville-based Patriot Real Estate Holdings.

A Significant Loss for the Sellers

The previous owners, a joint venture between Maryland-based institutional investor ASB Capital Management and commercial real estate firm George Comfort & Sons, purchased the building in 2013 for $61.9 million and reportedly renovated it in 2016.

The $40.5 million sale price represents a loss of more than $21 million — a stark illustration of how far downtown Manhattan office values have fallen over the past decade, particularly for smaller mixed-use assets outside the core Midtown and Lower Manhattan markets.

The Asset

The six-story building at 168 Canal Street spans approximately 39,000 square feet with a mix of office and ground-floor retail space. The property sits in Chinatown, a neighborhood that saw significant disruption during the pandemic and has faced a slower recovery compared to other Manhattan submarkets.

The Buyers and Their Financing

The new owners secured a $33.6 million loan from Urban Standard Capital to finance the acquisition with a high loan-to-cost ratio that signals confidence in the asset’s upside potential (or at minimum, a willingness to take on leverage at a price point they view as a floor).

Among the buyers, Keith Kantrowitz brings a largely industrial real estate portfolio worth $61.8 million, primarily concentrated in Queens, a notable pivot into Manhattan office and retail for at least one member of the group.

What the Deal Signals

At roughly $1,038 per square foot, this is a deeply discounted entry point for a Manhattan office asset. The sellers absorbed the loss and moved on; the buyers are betting on a recovery in Chinatown’s commercial market and likely see repositioning potential in a building that has already been renovated once.

For the broader market, this type of transaction where institutional sellers are cutting losses, and opportunistic buyers are stepping in with high leverage, is becoming an increasingly common pattern in the lower-tier Manhattan office segment.

Final Thoughts

168 Canal Street is a textbook distressed sale. The original buyers overpaid at the peak, the neighborhood underperformed expectations, and a new group is now coming in at a basis that gives them room to work.

Whether Chinatown office demand rebounds enough to justify the investment remains to be seen, but at $40.5 million for a renovated, transit-adjacent building, the new owners didn’t need much of a thesis beyond the price.

Real Observer Deals

Real Observer tracks commercial real estate transactions, development activity, and market intelligence across the Tri-State region. Subscribe free →