Music-School Executive Buys Midtown Building Home to Hatsuhana

A six-story Midtown building at 17 East 48th Street, home to Hatsuhana since 1976, has a new owner. Crain’s New York reported on October 26 that the buyer behind the deal is a music-school executive, and property records confirm the mechanics of the trade. An ACRIS deed recorded October 26, 2026 and dated October 15 shows seller R.L.C Properties, Inc. conveying the building to Lux & Zed Group LLC for $13,450,000.

Hatsuhana, often billed as New York’s oldest sushi restaurant, has operated from the ground floor for 50 years and holds a lease through December 2038, according to the Marcus & Millichap listing that marketed the property. The restaurant was not party to the sale and keeps its space under that lease regardless of who owns the building above it.

Why it matters

A long-tenured, below-market retail lease anchoring a Midtown office and retail building is exactly the kind of asset that draws a private buyer rather than an institutional one. Hatsuhana’s tenancy through 2038 gives the new owner more than a decade of locked-in, cash-flowing retail income before any lease rollover decision has to be made, insulating the building from Midtown’s uneven office-leasing recovery. For a buyer entering through a music-school-linked entity rather than a conventional real estate platform, that stability is likely the point: a known tenant, a known term, and limited near-term releasing risk on the retail base.

The numbers

The deed puts the price at $13,450,000, covering the full building at 17 East 48th Street, tax block 1284, lot 12. Hatsuhana’s lease, as marketed, runs another 12 years from closing. A price per square foot cannot be computed here because no confirmed building square footage appears in the deed, the ACRIS filing, or the listing details available; that figure is not reported rather than estimated.

What’s next

Watch whether Lux & Zed Group LLC files any alteration permits with the Department of Buildings for the upper floors, which would signal plans beyond holding the asset for its retail income. Hatsuhana’s lease term gives the new owner little incentive to disturb the restaurant before 2038, so any near-term moves are more likely aimed at the building’s office space than its ground floor. For more New York commercial sales, track how Midtown’s retail-anchored buildings continue to trade on tenant longevity rather than office fundamentals.