Smoke near the water: Brickman buys ex-LIC cigar factory

Brickman acquired a former DeNobili cigar factory a block from the Long Island City waterfront for $31.1 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Although Modern Spaces marketed the four-story, nearly 103,000-square-foot office warehouse at 35-11 9th Street as a potential conversion to apartments, the new owner is taking a different route.

“We are going to continue to operate it as it had been previously operated,” Steve Klein, chief investment officer at Brickman, told TRD.

Brickman, a Midtown East-based investment firm led by Bruce Brickman and Kathleen Corton, paid nearly $303 per square foot.

The property has 57 office units, two cell towers and an adjacent 6,000-square-foot parking lot at 35-31 9th Street. The office space is 91 percent occupied. Built in 1896, the building was renovated in 2012. There are ceilings as high as 20 feet, and exposed beams and arched windows.

Hudson Realty Capital, a Flatiron District-based real estate fund manager, put the building on the market in April. Modern Spaces’ Evan Daniel and Edward DiTomasso represented the seller.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Macy’s recently signed a lease for 150,000 square feet at the Factory Building at 30-30 47th Avenue.

In January, Brickman and DivcoWest sold two office buildings near Madison Square Park to Japanese investment firm Jowa Holdings for $210 million.