Benchmark to market 20-unit BK Heights rental as single-family home

UPDATED: April 14 5:15 p.m.: Benchmark Real Estate Group plans to market a 20-unit rental building in Brooklyn Heights as a single-family home, selling it for $22 million.

The real estate investment firm picked up the building at 50 Orange Street for $13.5 million in February.

The Soho-based firm tapped Nest Seekers International’s Ryan Serhant for the listing.

Benchmark, led by Jordan Vogel and Aaron Feldman, hired Lee Stahl of Renovated Home to draw up plans, the Wall Street Journal reported. Renovated Home’s plan will turn the 14,500-square-foot, five-story building into a home with four bedrooms with a roof terrace, wine cellar and gym.

Serhant told the Journal the buyer would be free to use those plans or not. Stahl said the plan would cost $10.6 million to execute and take 16 months, the newspaper reported.

At one point, 50 Orange Street was a part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses portfolio before it was sold to Sugar Hill Capital Partners in 2012. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Benchmark also owns 23-25 Monroe Place, a 67-unit rental building it bought for $40 million in 2015.

Last month, Benchmark sold an eight-story, 94-unit rental building at 320 East 22nd Street to New York University for $87.5 million. The firm also sold two Chelsea rental buildings for $26.5 million in November. [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

Correction: This post was updated to clarify that that Benchmark is not converting the building and it is up to the buyer whether to utilize Renovated Home’s plan.