Photo by Steve Adams |Banker & Tradesman Staff

After submitting notification for a planned 92-unit apartment conversion, a New York developer acquired a largely vacant South End office building for $24 million.

An entity registered to hotel developer Morris Moinian plans to resume permitting for the 87,247 square-foot building bordering the Massachusetts Turnpike at 95 Berkeley St.

The purchase price equates to $275 per square foot.

The transaction was financed with a $46.9 million mortgage from Earlsfort U.S. Real Estate of Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records.

The seller, CIM Group, paid $43 million to acquire the property from The Community Builders, a Boston nonprofit housing developer, in 2016. The 105-year-old building was 90 percent leased at the time. Currently, the upper floors are vacant.

CIM Group submitted an application for a $75 million project as part of Boston’s office to residential conversion program last year, but placed the property on the market last September.

The property previously had a $44 million mortgage from Pacific Western Bank.

The residential project would include 18 income-restricted units while retaining the occupied office space on the ground floor, according to a notification letter submitted July 21 to the Boston Planning Department.

The project will likely require a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeal to deviate from the minimum amount of open space per residential unit, according to the letter from attorney Matthew J. Eckel of Fletcher Tilton PC.