From top: Blusetone principals Eli Tabak, Marc Mendelsohn and Ari Bromberg; from left: 1585 and 1589 East 172nd Street

[Updated 12:06 p.m. at Sept. 16 with buyer information] The real estate investment firm the Bluestone Group, which denied for months it would unload a six-building portfolio of once severely distressed Bronx properties, sold the package for $17.6 million, a source close to the deal said.

The sale closed yesterday as part of a bankruptcy case filed by the former ownership company BXP 1, controlled by investor Susumu Endo. The buyer was Anthony Gazivoda, owner of Gazivoda Realty, a prominent landlord in the Bronx Albanian community, an employee at Gazicvod said. Gazivoda himself was not immediately available for comment. Bluestone, led by principals Eli Tabak, Ari Bromberg and Marc Mendelsohn, purchased the defaulted notes on the six properties, with a face value of $13.15 million, for about $10 million in June 2010, according to city property records. … [more]

From left: Artist Bernar Venet, 117-119 West 21st Street (source: PropertyShark) and Eli Tabak of Bluestone

Downtown-based distressed property buyers the Bluestone Group yesterday acquired the nonperforming note on a Chelsea building owned by French artist Bernar Venet, at 117-119 West 21st Street, the company said in a statement to The Real Deal.
The approximately 20,000-square-foot vacant loft building between Sixth and Seventh avenues is next to the Indigo Condominium at 125 West 21st Street, where this month lender Capital One was marketing the note on a retail condominium owned by the Alrose Group.

Some of Venet’s work is included in the collection of the prestigious Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery in Washington, D.C. Venet was born in France in 1941 and moved to New York City in 1966…. [more]

Gary Barnett and 20 West 47th Street

Gary Barnett won the 14-story office building located at 20 West 47th Street at a judicial sale today in the rotunda of the State Supreme Court building at 60 Centre Street, with a winning bid of $73 million (note: correction appended).

Barnett, president of Extell Development, beat out multiple bidders, including Parkway Realty and Bluestone Group, for the building between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

“We think the price for a 150,000-[square-foot] building, close to Fifth Avenue, with a large jewelry exchange made sense for us to purchase,” Barnett said in an e-mail. “We expect the whole block to be upgraded once the International Gem Tower (which his firm is building on the same block at 50 West 47th Street) goes vertical, which will be within two months.”… [more]

Eli Tabak of Bluestone

Real estate investment firm the Bluestone Group announced this morning the purchase of a 218-unit, three-building apartment complex at 3138, 3150 and 3300 Bailey Avenue in the North Bronx. The $17.4 million purchase was made by a joint venture partnership with Lantower Realty, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Lanterra Developments. Bluestone also announced that it acquired four loans with a total value of $7 million in the Bronx. “By acquiring assets below the debt levels rather than at market prices, it allows us to properly address the needs of the property and tenants,” said Eli Tabak, a principal at Bluestone. “It is also consistent with our business model of purchasing distressed debt secured by assets acquired at the height of the market in over-leveraged pro-forma based transactions.” TRD

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In the wake of Bronx landlord Sam Suzuki’s jailing over massive violations at his 1585 East 172nd Street apartment building, a new property owner is angling to buy six of the landlord’s buildings, according to the New York Daily News. The Bluestone Group, a four-year-old company that has bought several dilapidated buildings in the Bronx, said it’s in talks to snap up a collection of Suzuki’s distressed properties that the jailed property owner bought last year. Bluestone, which manages around 800 apartment units in the Bronx, has recently developed a reputation for taking over violation-heavy buildings. The company bought an apartment building with more than 600 violations at 1151 Elder Avenue in Soundview six months ago for an unknown amount and has since improved the building drastically, residents say. It purchased another Soundview building at 1129 Lawrence Avenue three months ago and reduced the number of violations at the building from 305 to seven. [NYDN]

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In the wake of Bronx landlord Sam Suzuki’s jailing over massive violations at his 1585 East 172nd Street apartment building, a new property owner is angling to buy six of the landlord’s buildings, according to the New York Daily News. The Bluestone Group, a four-year-old company that has bought several dilapidated buildings in the Bronx, said it’s in talks to snap up a collection of Suzuki’s distressed properties that the jailed property owner bought last year. Bluestone, which manages around 800 apartment units in the Bronx, has recently developed a reputation for taking over violation-heavy buildings. The company bought an apartment building with more than 600 violations at 1151 Elder Avenue in Soundview six months ago for an unknown amount and has since improved the building drastically, residents say. It purchased another Soundview building at 1129 Lawrence Avenue three months ago and reduced the number of violations at the building from 305 to seven. [NYDN]

… [more]