A far-right international media company with connections to China’s Falun Gong religious movement is expanding its Chelsea footprint, according to recent filings with the city register.
New Jersey-based Universal Communications Network — which does business as New Tang Dynasty and operates under the conservative media consortium Epoch Media Group, according to public tax filings — scooped up 129 W. 29th St. for $31 million, according to a public deed that appeared in city records on Monday.
The powerful print and digital media company, whose central ethos is its opposition to the Chinese Communist Party, publishes the multilanguage newspaper Epoch Times — through which it promotes viral conspiracy theories such as anti-vaccine disinformation and QAnon.
The media conglomerate, whose current headquarters at 229 W. 28th St. are just around the corner from its newly purchased 12-story 1911-era building between Sixth and Seventh avenues, has also reportedly funneled millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and repeated the false claim that Trump won the 2020 election against Joe Biden.
Universal Communications Network chairman and president Zhong Tang purchased the building from Samson Management for $23 million less than it sold for back in 2012, according to city records. Universal Communications Network also secured a $23.2 million loan from the International Bank of Chicago in order to purchase the property, according to public documents.
Epoch Media Group currently leases three floors of space across roughly 37,000 square feet in the Lexin Capital-owned Caxton Building on West 28th St. between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Lexin founder Metin Negrin told Crain’s Monday that Epoch has no plans to abandon its headquarters and is likely growing in size. Current tenants in the West 29th St. building include massage therapy service Premiere Sports Recovery and wellness center Arrive.
“I know they’re expanding, I know they definitely have an appetite for more space,” said Negrin.
NBC News reported last year that the once-small news organization, which operates as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, was able to massively grow its revenue by a whopping 685% in just two years, to $122 million in 2021.
Attempts by Crain’s to reach the company or the attorney involved in the transaction, Martin Meltzer, of the firm Belkin Burden Goldman, LLP were unsuccessful. And Samson Management declined to comment.
Julianne Cuba , 2024-04-15 19:48:16
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