The land-rich estate of William Gottlieb is out of probate and about to be sold for as much as $200 million, The Post has learned.
The bidding for the large, eclectic lower West Side property-portfolio is down to a handful of developers, including Glenn McDermott of GDM Projects, Kenneth S. Horn of Alchemy Properties, and The Related Cos., said sources close to the matter.
The current bidding is said to be in the neighborhood of $200 million, as of this week.
Although many in the real estate community have been interested in purchasing only certain portions of the properties, the estate is said to be for sale in its entirety.
“It’s the warts and all,” says a broker who is familiar with the offering. “Many of the buildings are in pretty rough shape and some are in locations that may not be conducive for development.”
Indeed, the total portfolio package is approximately 1 million square feet worth of warehouses, apartments, townhouses, retail stores and empty lots scattered about a half-mile-square corridor.
Gottlieb acquired most of his ragtag properties over 30 years on the once rough-and-tumble Lower West Side.
The bizarre, bearded landlord was a familiar neighborhood character, who would wear the same clothes, drive around in a beat-up station wagon and conduct operations in the back room of a Chinese restaurant (one of his tenants) until his death last fall.
Because Gottlieb’s dealings were mostly covert in nature, it’s not surprising that participating bidders were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with representatives of his estate before any questions would be answered.
One developer who signed the agreement but soon opted out was Edward Baquero, managing partner of Landmark Development.
“We initially contacted them some time ago and expressed our interest,” he says. “But [the estate reps] couldn’t really make sense of what they had.
“So, you basically had to make a blind offer without really knowing what you were going to get. And we just weren’t in the position to buy square footage without knowing exactly what we were dealing with.”
Many others, however, are willing to bid first and ask questions later.
“We’re talking about a lot of land becoming available in a hot, emerging area,” says another ex-bidder.
“A million feet in Manhattan is a million feet.”
Meanwhile, McDermott of GDM – which is already involved in several residential and commercial projects from the Financial District to Chelsea – has the backing of deep-pocketed Goldman Sachs for other development ventures in the area.
One ongoing project of GDM is the construction of a $35 million, nine-story condo building at 124 Hudson St. in TriBeCa. It will house 26 residences – ranging from $900,000 to $5 million – and 15,000 square-feet of ground-floor retail space when it’s completed next year.
Neither McDermott nor Horn would return calls.