Herald Square Demolition Filer Appears in No City Record

Two buildings across the street from the Empire State Building were filed for full demolition on September 11, and the entity that filed them cannot be traced to anything in the New York City property record.

Both jobs name 27 West Keyah Development LLC as owner, contact Xaver Kriechbaum. An ACRIS party search for “Kriechbaum” returns zero rows citywide. Keyah Real Estate Group is a real firm, a hospitality developer that trade coverage says Kriechbaum runs, but no record ties it to these lots. We resolved all 176 ACRIS legal rows on Block 836, Lots 15 and 18. The last deeds on either lot are dated August 9 and September 20, 2016, both recorded at $0. Nothing since.

Why it matters

Two radically underbuilt Herald Square lots are filed to come down. Demolition filings are the earliest public signal a site is in play, and these arrive after the debt on both lots left a German bank and the FDIC’s Signature portfolio for lender vehicles nobody can trace.

The numbers

Lot 15 holds 17,398 sq ft on a 4,938 sq ft lot, a built floor area ratio of 3.52. Lot 18 holds 19,054 sq ft on 6,897 sq ft, a built FAR of 2.76. Both sit in a C5-3 district permitting a commercial FAR of 15.0. Combined lot area is 11,835 sq ft, and 11,835 times 15.0 is roughly 177,525 sq ft allowed as of right, against about 36,452 sq ft standing.

Lot 15 carries a $50,000,000 mortgage recorded in August 2018 and an April 21, 2022 memorandum of lease. Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen (Helaba) assigned that position on June 29, 2026 to 29 W. 34th Street Holdings LLC, then on July 15 to 29 W. 34th Street Lender LLC. Lot 18’s 2016 debt passed from Signature Bank and the FDIC to 21 West 34 Lender LLC at One Vanderbilt Avenue in 2024. Every assignment is recorded at $0, and neither lender vehicle’s controlling parties can be established from any public record.

PincusCo reported that Helaba filed a $50,000,000 pre-foreclosure on September 4, 2025 at 27-29 West 34th Street, naming Wharton Properties as owner, which matches the 2018 mortgage exactly. That body is paywalled, so we have the headline only. The same outlet records a 2022 sale to Sonder Holdings dated April 21, 2022, the recording date of that memorandum of lease, and a lease is not a sale.

The addresses do not agree either: DOB calls Lot 15 “25 West 34 Street,” PLUTO calls it 29 West 34th Street, and the filer is “27 West,” pointing to a 21-29 West 34th Street assemblage.

What’s next

Both jobs sit in Plan Examiner Review. A deed, a new mortgage, or a new-building filing on either lot would put a name to this.

See our coverage of 13 Manhattan office conversions filed in six days and the New York market.