Treetop Development closes on Central Harlem portfolio for $18.4 million

[Updated at 1:00 p.m. with a comment from Treetop] The sale of one of the largest property portfolios to trade below 125th Street in Upper Manhattan in recent memory has closed for $18.4 million, according to Ariel Property Advisors, which brokered the deal on behalf of both the buyer and seller.

The portfolio, which was owned by a private developer, Wavecrest Management Team, consists of two elevator and two walk-up, mixed-use buildings with a combined 82 residential units plus 11 retail units at 120-26 West 116th Street, 1917-19 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, 110 St. Nicholas Avenue and 110 West 116th Street. It went into contract in October, according to news reports.

The buyer of the package is Treetop Development, which is the developer of Keap Street Lofts at 471 Keap Street.

“We view the area as an emerging neighborhood which has already undergone some gentrification,” said Adam Mermelstein of Treetop. “We’re value-added opportunistic buyers. This is a stepping stone to a larger porfolio.”

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Mermelstein also said the company has plans to renovate the hallways and common areas of all the properties as well as improve the facades of the commercial spaces.

“This portfolio is the first multi-family building to trade along the highly sought after West 116th Street corridor since 2009, and the street’s first mixed-use portfolio to sell since 2005,” said Victor Sozio, vice president of Ariel Property Advisors. “Transactions along this corridor are extremely rare because owners realize the rapid transformation taking place around them and prefer to extract the upside themselves.”

Sozio went on to note that the final price translates to under a 6 percent cap rate and nearly $200,000 per unit. The total portfolio has approximately 97,209 gross square feet.

“[It] received a tremendous amount of interest from the market, but especially caught the attention of institutional capital looking for real value-add opportunities,” said Shimon Shkury, president of Ariel. — Katherine Clarke