In a first for Manhattan real estate market, the Amirian Group is seeking investment for its luxury condo project in the East Village in the form of cryptocurrency tokens. The developer and partners of the real estate project said that this is the first time blockchain and cryptocurrency will be used for investing in the Manhattan real estate market.
By recording each transaction on the blockchain, the project developers hope to make the real estate process more transparent and accessible. By making the real estate investing decentralized, the developers believe more small-scale investors will be able to invest in the highly profitable New York real estate market.
The condo, a 12 unit construction with 1700 sq ft units located at 436 & 442E 13th St. in the East Village, will be first such project to be tokenized on the Ethereum Blockchain. While the property has been appraised at more than $30 million, records at the New York City Department of Finance show that the project has already received a financing of $16.95 million.
Ryan Serhant, the listing broker on the deal, believes that investments in such projects through cryptocurrency tokens would be a better alternative for both investors and developers.
“The market in New York is always strong, but it can take some time to sell for the right price in a new construction building. With blockchain tokenization, we can remove the unruly pressure of traditional bank financing, which is much healthier for the project and all of the stakeholders. Tokenization is paving the way for a new forefront in real estate development,” Serhant said.
The people responsible for the project are from Fluidity, a blockchain company that created AirSwap, a decentralized token trading platform. Fluidity will work with Propellr Securities LLC, a New York-based company that will be the broker-dealer of the LLC.
Investors can still invest in the project through traditional fiat money. If they decide to invest through crypto tokens, the transaction will be recorded on Blockchain, an online public ledger which shows who own what.
“Propellr’s job is to find the buyers of the security through their tech platform. Our job is to take those interests and turn them into tokens.’’ said Michael Oved, co-founder of Fluidity.
Though it is the first real estate project in the city to make use of crypto tokens in equity investments, it sure is not the first deal to make use of cryptocurrency.
