Dalan, RWN pay $47M for Midtown East ground lease

Property at 230 East 44th St. has 164 apartments

From left: Daniel Wrublin, Ari Shalam and the Indigo at 230 East 44th Street
From left: Daniel Wrublin, Ari Shalam and the Indigo at 230 East 44th Street

Dalan Management and RWN Real Estate Partners purchased the ground lease for a 164-unit Midtown East residential building for $47 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The Indigo, a 14-story, 135,315-square-foot property at 230-238 East 44th Street, includes about 4,000 square feet of retail space and a 25,000-square-foot garage. Dalan and RWN are planning a major renovation of the building.

The sellers of the 99-year-lease were a group of investors led by Uri Mermelstein, who bought the ground lease in October 2007 for $16.2 million, according to CoStar data. Venture Capital Properties’ Daniel Rahmani brokered the deal, which closed today. Mermelstein was represented by John Stewart of Cole Schotz.

“We are extremely pleased that we were able to fully renegotiate and extend the ground lease in a manner that makes the planned redevelopment of the property economically attractive to Dalan and RWN,” said RWN principal Ari Shalam. Daniel Wrublin, a founding principal at Dalan, said that the partners “plan to modernize and improve the property to make it a desirable place for residents to live for years to come.”

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The property, which contains a mix of rent-regulated and market-rate units, saw a total income of $5.4 million in 2013, according to PropertyShark data. Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Management is building a 41-story residential tower nearby at 212-214 East 44th Street.

Mermelstein declined to comment. Dalan, headed by Andrew and Daniel Wrublin, paid $36 million for a pair of 12-story Midtown East office buildings earlier this month.

Kyna Doles contributed reporting.