L3, ASB buy 16 Williamsburg lots for $86M

Chicago-based L3 Capital and Bethesda-based ASB Real Estate Investments closed on a portfolio of 16 Williamsburg properties for $86 million that were being sold by the estate of investor Mike Lee.

The portfolio consisted of 13 buildings and four vacant lots, all located between Berry Street and Kent Avenue between North Sixth and North Seventh Streets, close to the center of the action in Williamsburg.

The properties were originally left to Lee’s widow, Ulla Lee, who died last fall, leaving them to her niece, who lives in Denmark.

The seller’s brokers, Eastern Consolidated’s Adelaide Polsinelli and Ben Tapper, were tasked with documenting the potential for each site, while some documents were missing and others were handwritten, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“All of this would have been hard to do if we were in an area people weren’t so bullish about,” Polsinelli said. “The bullishness of retailers and shoppers and hipsters whose center of the universe is Brooklyn fits right into this.”

The mixed-bag portfolio drew dozens of interested buyers, and L3 and ASB won a second round of bidding. The firms are planning residential and retail projects on the sites. [WSJ] — Tess Hofmann