Galil picks up the Classic in Kew Gardens for $35M

UPDATED: 3:27 p.m., Nov. 9, 2015: Galil Management made another major buy in Kew Gardens, picking up the Classic, a 52-unit rental building, for $35 million.

The 90,000-square-foot building, which also includes one commercial unit, currently leased to the Department of Education, is located at 83-30 Kew Gardens Road, between 83rd and 84th avenues in Queens.

The Kamali Organization and the Roubeni family purchased the property, formerly the Chatillon Scale Factory, for $5.5 million in 2005.

Lazer Philpson brokered the sale.

Three years later, the owners added several stories, decked the building out with amenities, then converted it to condos. Half the units in the building went into contract at the time, according to a source familiar with the conversion, but demand evaporated in the face of the financial crisis and the ensuing market downturn. Later that year, Kamali and the Roubeni’s converted again, to luxury rentals.

Galil’s move followed the developer’s $29.5 million purchase in September of a package of 110 rent-stabilized units at the nearby 83-30 118th Street, also in Kew Gardens. Those units comprised nearly the entire building.

The firm was sued by residents at another building it’s in the process of purchasing, at 101 West 23rd Street in Chelsea. Residents accused Galil and the building’s co-op board of engaging in a “campaign of intimidation, harassment, threats, coercion and scare tactics,” aimed at convincing owners to sell.

The article was updated with broker information and a more detailed history of the property.