T&E Development Buys West Chelsea Site for $34M 

The developers behind a fast-selling Gramercy condo project are making their next play across town. 

T&E Development closed on a development site at 538-542 29th Street for $33.5 million. Einav Gelberg and Tomer Erlich’s firm is planning 76 condo units at the site, which sits between 10th and 11th avenues on the border of West Chelsea and Hudson Yards. 

BHI Bank financed the purchase.

The developers bought the site from PPHE Hotel Group, a publicly-traded company in Europe, which had previously acquired the site for $42 million with plans to build a 74,000-square-foot 98-key hotel and 55-unit condo. 

The price for the site, which works out to roughly $450 per square foot, will allow the firm to build more affordable units than are currently available in the area, according to Gelberg. 

The condo will have a mix of studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, all of which will skew smaller than the condos available at other pricier nearby buildings like One High Line at 500 West 18th Street or The Cortland at 555 West 22nd Street. 

The goal is to provide units that renters in the area can move into without seeing a huge jump in their monthly payments aside from paying rent, which StreetEasy places around $7,000 per month in the area, to paying a mortgage, according to Erlich. 

The developers declined to comment on specific pricing, but noted that recent sales in the area have gone for around $2,500 per square foot. 

Amenities will include a 24-hour doorman, fitness center, swimming pool, spa, residents’ lounge and landscaped roof terrace. Construction is expected to start next year. 

The acquisition comes as T&E wraps up sales at the Florian, a 54-unit building at 350 East 18th Street on the eastern edge of Gramercy. That project is now over 80 percent sold after launching sales less than a year ago, according to Gelberg. 

The developers are bringing back the Eklund-Gomes sales team from Douglas Elliman to do sales and marketing for their new project. 

“There are a lot of people who appreciate good high design who don’t have as much money as the people who would be paying $3,000 a square foot and more,” Gomes said of the market for the new project.

The neighborhood, and broader area along the West Side Highway, has seen a number of developments crop up in recent years catering to buyers paying far more than $3,000 per square foot. 

Witkoff Group and Access Industries’ One High Line at 500 West 18th Street has had an average closing price of $3,400 per square foot, but has also included a number of top-floor units that have sold for over $4,000 per square foot, as well as a penthouse that closed in 2024 for $47 million, or $6,800 per square foot, according to Marketproof. 

“There’s just been this huge desire for people to want to live on the west side, and in these neighborhoods in particular,” Gomes said of the project. 

The area around West Chelsea will likely continue to fill in as the second phase of the Hudson Yards project, which is expected to deliver another 4,000 residential units and over six acres of public green space by 2031. Equinox also has plans to open a 53,000-square-foot location at the redeveloped Terminal Warehouse on 28th Street and 11th Avenue. 

Other developers have appeared to take note. Victor Sigoura’s Legion Investment Group and AVRS Capital expect to wrap construction on an 83-unit project at 550 West 21st Street next year after securing $155 million in construction financing last year. 

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