Benchmark’s Meatpacking District rentals sell for $11M — a 75% markup from last year

Benchmark Real Estate Group’s selling spree is gaining steam. The multi-family investment firm founded by Aaron Feldman and Jordan Vogel has sold a 22-unit Meatpacking District rental building for $10.75 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The property, at 256 West 15th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, sold to a private Chinese investor named Sarin & Associates in a deal that closed yesterday for $824 per square foot. The transaction was only Sarin’s third in New York and was executed as part of a 1031 exchange.

Peter Von Der Ahe, Joe Koicim and Sean Lefkovits of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller while Chris Okada and David Ho of Okada & Company represented the buyer.

Benchmark acquired the property for $6.13 million last year, or 75 percent less than the selling price, public records show, and set about increasing the building’s net operating income by increasing the rent roll.

“After executing on the business plan, we thought it was a prudent time to sell given the state of the investment sales market,” Vogel said in a statement.

Of the building’s 22 residential units, seven are currently rent-stabilized and one is rent-controlled, according to Marcus & Millichap. The property is 100 percent leased. Two retail units on the ground floor are occupied by a hair salon and a Laundromat.

“The final buyer wanted a high cash flow finished product and was attracted by its proximity to the Google headquarters located across Eighth Avenue,” Koicim said.

Benchmark has been actively selling off chunks of its Manhattan portfolio in recent months, The Real Deal previously reported. It listed a 10-unit, 6,705-square-foot building at 48 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village in July for $10.25 million, more than double the $4.48 million it paid for it last year.