Blesso buys Williamsburg site with 190K buildable sf for $33M

Property includes Lincoln Savings Bank building

525-545 Broadway (inset: Matt Blesso)
525-545 Broadway (inset: Matt Blesso)

UPDATED, 10:30 p.m., August 18: Blesso Properties picked up the development site at 525-545 Broadway in Williamsburg, the location of the former Lincoln Savings Bank building, paying $33 million.

The site, on the northeast corner of Boerum Street and Broadway, is currently home to the 60,000-square-foot former bank, along with 13,000 square feet of parking. There is a total of nearly 190,000 square feet of buildable space at the site.

The parcel was purchased in 2007 for $13.4 million by Broad and Boerum, LLC, the sellers in this deal, according to property records. That entity is controlled by Shaya Weissfeld, according to Reonomy.

The West Village-based Blesso Properties, led by CEO Matt Blesso, has to date primarily worked in Manhattan. The company’s only prior work in Brooklyn was a collaboration with the now-defunct member-based design center 3rd Ward.

David Kessler, president at Blesso, was previously director of acquisitions at Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital.

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Citicore’s Benjamin Shafran represented Blesso while a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Michael Amirkhanian and Brendan Maddigan represented the seller, Kessler confirmed in an email to TRD Tuesday.

The property hit the market last August with an asking price of $35 million, or about $184 per buildable square foot. It sold for about $173 per buildable square foot.

ATCO Properties & Management provided $12.7 million in preferred equity for the deal, and Centennial provided a $21.5 million senior mortgage.

Correction: A prior version of this article mischaracterized the brokers in the sale.