Rabsky ditches plans for first Manhattan project

Opal pays $23M for EV site once slated for 15-story rental

The former building at 644-652 East 14th Street in the East Village
The former building at 644-652 East 14th Street in the East Village

UPDATED, Sept. 21, 11:45 a.m.: Rabsky Group scrapped plans for its first Manhattan project, deciding instead to sell its East Village development site for $23 million, according to property records filed with the city Tuesday.

Opal Holdings, a real estate investment firm led by Shaya and Shulamit Prager, closed last month on the vacant site at 644-652 East 14th Street, just southeast of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village complex.

At the time of the purchase, Opal also scored a $52 million acquisition and construction loan from Madison Realty Capital [TRData], records show.

Rabsky, a firm headed by Simon Dushinsky and Isaac Rabinowitz is one of Brooklyn’s most active residential developers. It  paid $15 million in 2014 for the site, and demolished a one-story warehouse there to make way for a 15-story, 62,000-square-foot rental to be designed by architect Karl Fischer. The project was slated to hold 50 apartments and a five-story community facility.

There has been no progress on the project since the Department of Buildings issued permits in January 2016.

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Instead of developing the site, Rabsky quietly looked to sell it, sources said. It was Rabsky’s sole asset in Manhattan, as its holdings are largely in outer-borough neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Long Island City.

The site has an alternate address of 221-229 Avenue C.

Representatives for Rabsky and Opal could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rabsky is currently developing a 500-unit rental on part of the Rheingold Brewery site in Bushwick and a 195-unit rental at 42-20 27th Street in Long Island City.