RXR planning first NYC resi development

Rechler’s firm bought leasehold on BK site for $29M, planning 363-unit rental building

Scott Rechler and 810 Fulton Street in Brooklyn
Scott Rechler and 810 Fulton Street in Brooklyn

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty, owner of prestige office properties like the Helmsley and Starrett-Lehigh buildings, is planning to tackle its first residential development in the city.

RXR [TRDataCustom] purchased the leasehold on a parking lot at 810 Fulton Street on the border of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn for $28.7 million, Crain’s reported. The firm plans to build a 10-story rental building with 363 apartments on the site.

The seller, GFI Development, reached an agreement with the city to set aside 20 percent of the units as affordable housing, and secured 421a benefits by pouring a part of the foundation last year before the program expired.

RXR will restart construction later this year and expects to be finished toward by late 2018 or early 2019.

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“As costs rise for commercial and residential space in core New York markets, this will create demand in new areas, such as Fort Greene and other emerging submarkets,” RXR CEO Scott Rechler in a statement.

Two years ago, RXR purchased a leasehold from GFI on large adjacent office property at 470 Vanderbilt for nearly $200 million. The estate of Sol and Lillian Goldman owns the fee position on both properties.

RXR will pay the same undisclosed rent that GFI was paying to the Goldmans until the lease expires in 2077. [Crain’s]Rich Bockmann