Ashkenazy, Centurion snag retail at Nolita condo for $40M

Duo buys three-level space from Richard Hadar that's home to NYPL branch, American Apparel

From left: 285 Lafayette Street in Nolita, Ben Ashkenazy, Ralph Tawil and Richard Hadar (Hadar credit: Nick Levitan)
From left: 285 Lafayette Street in Nolita, Ben Ashkenazy, Ralph Tawil and Richard Hadar (Hadar credit: Nick Levitan)

Ben Ashkenazy’s Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation and Ralph Tawil’s Centurion Realty jointly paid $40 million for a three-level retail condominium at the base of a nine-story apartment building in Nolita, The Real Deal has learned.

The 30,000-square-foot retail component at 285 Lafayette Street — near Jersey Street and just south of Jared Kushner’s Puck Building – is home to seven tenants. The New York Public Library’s Mulberry Street branch occupies 16,100 square feet across three floors, under a lease deal expiring in 2021. Other tenants include cosmetics retailer Santa Maria Novella and clothier American Apparel, which is due to vacate its 7,000-square-foot space by early next year.

Matthew Marshall of Marshall Real Estate represented both the buyers and the seller, veteran developer Richard Hadar of Richard Hadar Funding.

Ashkenazy is planning a long-term hold on the retail spaces, Daniel Levy, partner at the development firm, told TRD.

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Several national tenants expressed interest in American Apparel’s space while the deal was in contract, Levy said. Ashkenazy and Centurion signed a contract in May. The deal closed today.

Allied Partners, led by Richard Hadar’s son Eric Hadar, converted the loft building into condominiums in 1999. The nearly 118,000-square-foot structure holds 30 apartments. Character actor Saul Rubinek sold his three-bedroom home in the building over the summer, as TRD reported.

Ashkenazy and Centurion recently did a deal together in which Ashkenazy acquired two retail buildings near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown from Centurion for $40 million, according to TRD.