Cheskie Weisz buying Williamsburg dev site for $45M

BK developer planning 140K sf rental on Kent Ave. and North 3rd

48-50 North 3rd Street in Williamsburg (credit: Villain LLC)
48-50 North 3rd Street in Williamsburg (credit: Villain LLC)

UPDATED, Dec. 8, 10:48 a.m.: Cheskie Weisz’s CW Realty Management is in contract to buy a North Williamsburg development site for $45 million, with plans for a new 140,000-square-foot rental building, The Real Deal has learned.

The two adjacent L-shaped lots at 187-201 Kent Avenue and 48-50 North 3rd Street house a pair of low-rise warehouses. The latter address is home to the event space Villain LLC.

Weisz, an active developer based in Williamsburg, plans to demolish those buildings and construct a property with apartments, parking, and a retail space on the ground floor and lower level, sources said.

The site itself offers 69,450 buildable square feet, bringing the in-contract price to about $648 per buildable square foot. The deal includes additional air rights from neighboring parcels, sources added.

Property records show Weisz signed a contract on Aug. 22. The seller is Flushing-based investor Sam W. Gee, affiliated with S W G I Realty, according to records.

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The site boasts 192 feet of frontage on Kent Avenue and 170 feet along North 3rd Street.

“This property is one of the last development sites over 40,000 square feet on the north side of Williamsburg,” said Yona Edelkopf, CEO of brokerage Epic Commercial Realty [TRDataCustom]. “With the recent opening of Whole Foods and Apple on North 4th Street and Bedford Avenue, the large retail component drove up the price per square foot.”

Further south along Kent Avenue, CW Realty and partners bought three rental buildings at 119-123 Kent Avenue for $15.9 million earlier this year.

Weisz’s firm also develops in Manhattan, with projects such as a 33-story, 120,000-square-foot condominium building at East 73rd Street and First Avenue.

Though the investment sales market in Brooklyn has been hit hard by the expiration of 421a,  there have been a few major Williamsburg trades of late, including Sugar Hill Capital Partners’ $39.5 million purchase of 315 Siegel Street and Flank’s $36.2 million purchase of a development site next to the Domino Sugar Factory megaproject.