Following a brief hiatus, NYC real estate heavyweight and former Carlyle Group partner Andrew Chung returns to action with a blockbuster $44M acquisition of 202 Canal St in the heart of Chinatown.

Andrew’s new firm, Innovo Property Group, partnered with Artemis Real Estate Partners to secure the 15.5k SF retail condo, putting up $14M in equity along with a $30M mortgage from Bank of China.

The property—which sits on the corner of Lower Manhattan’s busy Canal Street and Mulberry streets, right in the middle of Chinatown’s banking center—has a long-term triple-net lease with ICBC, one of the largest banks in the world, all but guaranteeing a secure stream of income as the property appreciates.

“Our investment thesis was simple,” Andrew tells Bisnow exclusively. “We loved the location and the tenant. We saw upside in market appreciation over time while exposing ourselves to limited downside.”

When Andrew secured the deal, he negotiated rights to build a new facade on the building's retail portion (above), a move that could drive value up even further.

With its southeast Manhattan location, Chinatown has been buzzing lately with a series of new retail and banking arrivals. “With all the capital coming from China, the banks have to be here to enhance their market presence,” he says.

The NYC dealmaker--here seen putting pen to paper--told us this transformation was a key reason he struck when the deal was presented to him, raising the capital and closing in about a month.

Crane Partners was the seller, brokered by Elad Dror and Tony Park from PD Properties and Avihu Kadosh – while Mesiter Seelig & Fein's Matt Kassindorf repped Andrew.

The deal could foreshadow more to come in the near future, Andrew tells us. "I am very excited to start this relationship with Artemis," Andrew says, "and we are actively looking for more deals."