Isaac Kassirer buys seven-building West Bronx package for $45M

Black Spruce owned rental properties in former “Three Borough Pool” for a year

1967-1971 Marmion Avenue in the Bronx (inset: Isaac Kassirer)
1967-1971 Marmion Avenue in the Bronx (inset: Isaac Kassirer)

Isaac Kassirer paid $44.5 million for seven West Bronx multifamily buildings from Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management, which is in the process of turning over a portion of its purchases last year from the large “Three Borough Pool” portfolio.

The package includes 305 apartments – mostly rent-stabilized units – across 265,400 square foot, according to marketing materials.

Black Spruce, a NoMad-based investment firm, was the primary buyer of Normandy Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners’ 42-building portfolio spanning the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan, which was sold to multiple investors over a period of months. In March 2015, Black Spruce paid nearly $58 million for eight Bronx buildings. Earlier this year, the firm sold one of the properties — on Sheridan Avenue — for $34.7 million.

The remaining seven buildings of that leg of the Three Borough Pool sold last week to Kassirer, who runs Emerald Equities, for about $170 per square foot, sources said.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The properties are all located in the West Bronx, in neighborhoods such as Fordham, Tremont and University Heights. The addresses are 265 and 269 East 194th Street, 2391 and 2401 Davidson Avenue, 709-715 Fairmount Place, 1967-1971 Marmion Avenue and 51 Buchanan Place, marketing materials show. Five are walk-ups and two are elevator buildings.

One of the buildings offers a development opportunity. The five-story, 51,500-square-foot walk-up at 1967-1971 Marmion Avenue comes with more than 93,000 buildable square feet.

Kassirer, an investor who is also active in Brooklyn, just made another big purchase in the borough – $140 million for a 38-building package known as the “Bronx 1000,” in partnership with Harbor Group International. He was also among the buyers of a 13-building, $90 million Bronx portfolio last year.

Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis brokered the deal.