Brooklyn developers find handsome profit flipping land

Land prices in Brooklyn have jumped so rapidly that some developers can turn a tidy profit without even beginning construction. For example, the owner of a Clinton Hill lot at 76 Lefferts Place, near Washington Avenue, bought the site in June 2012 for $3.4 million, with the intent of building luxury townhouses. But instead, he sold the site this July for $7.85 million.

“For him to turn around a profit, with no risk, and not worry about having to build eight or 10 townhouses — that was his move,” Massey Knakal Realty Services’ Stephen Palmese, who brokered the deal, told the Wall Street Journal.

And at 735 Bergen Street, another developer paid $1.58 million for an industrial building in October 2012. Last month, the developer – who wasn’t named by the newspaper – sold the building for $3.1 million. The circumstances of this deal were similar to the one at 76 Lefferts Place, said Palmese, who wasn’t involved in the transaction.

Residential rents and sales prices have been rising much faster in Brooklyn than in Manhattan, significantly narrowing the pricing gap between the two boroughs, as The Real Deal reported. [WSJ, 1st item] – Hiten Samtani