UK firm splashes out $45.5M on site in Greenpoint

Quadram's buy of 161 West Street latest in series of New York deals by private equity outfit

161 West Street
161 West Street

A London-based private equity firm paid $45.5 million for a 179,000 square-foot development site to just to the south of the Greenpoint Landing site in northern Brooklyn — and has plans to build even bigger.

Quadrum Global purchased the property at 161 West Street from a group of owners led by Brooklyn-based investor Miriam Chan, property records filed today show. Abraham Kassin of Kassin Sabbagh Realty represented Quadrum in the deal.

Chan’s investment group had paid $13 million for the property back in 2004.

The block-long lot, which currently is home to a two-story warehouse, is immediately to the south of the Greenpoint Landing mega-development in northern Brooklyn that could house as many as 5,500 apartments in 10 towers near Newtown Creek.

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With an inclusionary housing bonus for affordable apartments and an upzoning, the property could yield about 430,000 square feet of buildable space, according to Quadrum director Seth Schumer.

“We think given the success of Williamsburg and Long Island City . . . we see Greenpoint as an area in between with great transportation,” said Schumer, adding the company has not decided whether the project will be rental or condo.

Earlier this year, Quadrum, along with Simon Baron Development, paid $53.25 million to purchase the development site at 29-26 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City where Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group had plans to build a 45-story rental tower at the eastern end of Queensboro Plaza. The development team is going forward with Dushinsky’s plan, albeit with a few minor changes.

In 2013 the two companies snapped up a Vernon Boulevard site for $14.7 million.