Adam America, Slate to build $65M East Williamsburg rental 

Developers close on buy of block-through lot for 75K sf project 

From left: David Schwartz, Martin Nussbaum, Dvir Cohen Hoshen and 120 Union Avenue in Brooklyn
From left: David Schwartz, Martin Nussbaum, Dvir Cohen Hoshen and 120 Union Avenue in Brooklyn

Adam America Real Estate Group, Slate Property Group and Israel-based Naveh Shuster Limited have teamed up on another project. This time, the group acquired an East Williamsburg development site to construct a $65 million, 75,000-square-foot mixed-use property.

The 26,000-square-foot block-through lot at 120 Union Avenue near Middleton Street was purchased this week for $15.5 million, the developers told The Real Deal. Robles Realty has owned the site since 1998. The seller plans to relocate an existing 18,000-square-foot collision-repairs building on the lot; the building is now vacant.

The new owners intend to put up a six-story property with 100 rental units and 2,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Construction is expected to begin early next year. Aufgang Architects and Meshberg Group signed on as architects.

Ofer Cohen of Brooklyn commercial brokerage TerraCRG represented both sides. In September, Robles listed the site for $18 million. Four months later, he repackaged the listing to include a nearby, but not adjacent, parcel at 100 Union Avenue for a combined $23 million, as previously reported.

The developers signed the contract in March for both sites, but the sale of 100 Union Avenue – for roughly $6 million — is not set to close for another four months, said David Schwartz, principal and co-founder of Slate Property Group with Martin Nussbaum.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

“We wanted to focus on getting the project at 120 Union Avenue up and running first because it’s a much bigger project,” Schwartz told The Real Deal.

Schwartz said the developers plan to build a six- or seven-story property with 40 rental units at 100 Union Avenue.

While much of the surrounding area is excluded from the city’s 421-a tax abatement program, the Union Avenue sites fall outside the borders, meaning a developer could take advantage of a break on property taxes for building in this less developed neighborhood.

In February, Adam America, Slate and Naveh Shuster Limited jointly acquired a nine-building Park Slope development site at 470 Fourth Avenue for $20 million. The project would be a 107,000-square-foot rental building with ground-floor retail, as The Real Deal reported.