Black Spruce, Prana take another bite out of “Three Borough Pool” portfolio

With a series of mini-portfolio deals, Normandy Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners are inching closer to shedding a total of 1,700 apartments as part of the investment firms’ plans to focus on office property deals. In the past week, they have sold seven buildings to Black Spruce Management for $43 million, and 10 to Prana Growth Fund for $36.2 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The 42-building “Three Borough Pool” multifamily portfolio, spanning the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan, is expected to entirely change hands by next month, sources said. Last month, Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management, a Midtown-based investment firm, acquired seven Bronx buildings for nearly $58 million, as TRD reported.

Then, late last week, Black Spruce closed on the purchase of the low-income Housing & Urban Development portion of the portfolio – 100 apartments in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood and 220 apartments across the South Bronx. The deal also included several ground-floor retail units.

The mid-sized properties were 178-188 East 93rd Street and 286-290 East 91st Street in Brooklyn, and 972-976 Leggett Avenue, 949 Anderson Avenue and 820-822 Jackson Avenue in the Bronx.

Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis, who declined to comment, represented both sides in the Black Spruce deal. Gotlib declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Prana Growth Fund, a San Francisco-based fund led by Richard Esposito, Kurt McCracken and Peter Larsen, picked up more than 280 rent-stabilized apartments in the Bronx this week.

The buildings were 2310, 2314 and 2463 Valentine Avenue; 2376 Ryer Avenue; 710 East 138th Street; 1450 and 1471 Taylor Avenue; 50 East 172nd Street; 452 East 187th Street; and 1145 Clay Avenue.

Besen & Associates’ Amit Doshi and Lynda Blumberg represented the seller and procured the buyer in the Prana deal. Jungreis co-brokered the deal for six of the buildings, sources said.

Both Black Spruce and Prana are planning a long-term hold and extensive renovations for the buildings.

“We saw these as attractive properties and we desire to be responsible long-term holders of them,” a spokesperson for Prana said.

Last year, Normandy and Westbrook reached a deal with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to replace the buildings’ management after the properties racked up hundreds of code violations.