From left: David Ash, Jared Kushner, Aaron Jungreis and 195 E. 4th St.

UPDATED 11:00 a.m., Feb. 6: The Kushner Companies extended a Manhattan apartment acquisition binge last month by signing a contract to buy seven walk-up rental buildings in the East Village for $49 million from developer Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group and Meadow Partners, several sources said. The seven buildings have a total of 115 apartments and one store. Among the residential units, 28 are rent stabilized and the rest are free market, insiders said. [more]

From left: Aaron Jungreis, Steve Kohn and 21-81 38th Street — one of the buildings sold to Douglaston Realty

Dermot Property Associates has sold a 14-building portfolio made up of 861 apartments and 41 retail spaces, the New York Observer reported. The properties, which are located in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, traded for $190.5 million. The Parkoff Organization purchased 10 of the buildings for $158 million, as The Real Deal reported last week. [more]

From left: the Bossert Hotel and Aaron Jungreis

The former Bossert Hotel traded hands for $81 million, Rosewood Realty Group told The Real Deal today. The 103-year-old property, located at 98 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, was previously used as a Jehovah’s Witnesses community facility and will be turned back into a hotel.

David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit bought the 14-story property in August and the sale officially closed last Friday. The purchase price was rumored to be around $90 million. Rosewood President Aaron Jungreis represented Bistricer and Chetrit, along with broker Devin Cohen, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses/Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York’s Real Property Department handled the transaction for the seller. (note: correction appended) [more]

From left: Rosewood's Aaron Jungreis and two of the properties at 200 East 18th Street and 350 East 19th Street

Multi-family real estate investment firm Shamah Properties has acquired a six-building, 376-unit Ditmas Park, Brooklyn portfolio for $42.1 million, Michael Kaplan, director of property management for Shamah, told The Real Deal today. The company, which launched a $50 million investment fund last year to acquire multi-family properties in New York City, closed on the portfolio April 19, which includes buildings at 2015 Foster Avenue, 1 St. Paul’s Court, 200 East 18th Street, 350 East 19th Street, 75 Hawthorne Street and 2101 Bedford Avenue. The deal has not yet hit public records. [more]

Helen Hwang, an executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, Aaron Jungreis, president at Rosewood Realty Group, James Nelson, a partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, David Schechtman, senior director at Eastern Consolidated

Compiled by Adam Pincus
Brokers broadly expect next year to be an improvement over 2011 in New York City’s investment sales market, although concerns about the global economy and financial services layoffs create uncertainty, and that puts a drag on activity. This year, total investment sales are expected to end up at about $25 billion, far ahead of the $14.5 billion in 2010. The Real Deal talked to a series of brokers about what they expect for the new year…. [more]

From left: Rubin Schron of Cammeby’s International Group, Rosewood Realty Group President Aaron Jungreis, 410 St. Nicholas Avenue and 2450 Frederick Douglass Boulevard (building credits: PropertyShark)

Real estate investor Israel Weinberger purchased the nearly 40-year-old Lionel Hampton Houses in Harlem for $32.5 million from Rubin Schron’s Cammeby’s International Group.

The former Mitchell-Lama apartment buildings, with a total of 355 units, are located at 2450 Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 131st and 132nd streets and 410 St. Nicholas Avenue, between 130th and 131st streets.

The sale went into contract in May and closed Oct. 5, city property records published Oct. 31 show. Cammeby’s and Weinberger did not respond to requests for comment.

The sale was brokered by Aaron Jungreis, president of Rosewood Realty Group, for a price of about $91,550 per unit. … [more]

Park51

It happens all the time. A buyer eyeballing a significant piece of real estate loses heart because of some nagging doubt about the property or a dip in the stock market. But what happens when a deal is sabotaged for a reason having nothing to do with the price or the property? That was the case when a Saudi investor recently about-faced on a major apartment in a top Manhattan building. The reason, according to a prominent real estate lawyer, was the anti-Islamic response to Park51, the proposed downtown Islamic culture center. Some suggest the vitriol surrounding Park51 could cool Middle Eastern buyers on New York — although that assessment is by no means universal.

… [more]

Sam Zabala, Solomon Franco, 859-865 Lexington Ave., 132 East 65th Street, Aaron Jungreis, Michael Guttman 

Pennsylvania-based home builder Toll Brothers made the largest commercial purchase to appear in the city’s property database Acris last week, buying a stalled development site on the Upper East Side. Other transfers included the sale of a four-story building near Times Square, an apartment building in Brooklyn and a property in Willets Point. In addition, HFZ Capital Group bought a small building adjacent to the crane collapse site that it now controls on the Upper East Side…. [more]

Some of the top brokers of the week, from left: Darcy Stacom, William Shanahan, Aaron Jungreis, Paul Massey and Clint Olsen

The top commercial transaction of the week was the sale by SL Green Realty of a Class B office building to Deka Immobilien Investment, which was brokered by Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis. There were no other office property sales in the top five transactions as published on the city website Acris last week. The other sales included a hotel in Chelsea, a retail condo in Lenox Hill, an apartment buildi… [more]

752 West End Avenue (source: PropertyShark)

… [more]