Benchmark sells 36-unit Midtown West rental building for $48M

Soho firm continues to bank on multifamily assets in deal with New Jersey family

885 10th Avenue
885 10th Avenue in Midtown (inset, from left: Jordan Vogel and Aaron Feldman)

Benchmark Real Estate Group sold a 36-unit mixed-use rental building in Midtown West to a New Jersey-based, family-run investment firm for $47.5 million, sources told The Real Deal.

Benchmark, led by Jordan Vogel and Aaron Feldman, struck a deal for the six-story, 37,000-square-foot property at 885 10th Avenue with Rich International, a Fort Lee, N.J.-based company owned by the Park family and led by principal Edward Park.

Benchmark acquired the elevator building, which is located on the corner of West 58th Street and features two ground-floor retail spaces spanning roughly 3,000 square feet, for $32.3 million in 2014.

The Soho-based firm embarked on an extensive renovation of the property, upgrading all 36 rental units – seven of which are rent-stabilized – and adding a new roof deck. In addition, the property holds approximately 20,000 square feet of buildable air rights.

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An HFF team led by Eric Anton, Jeff Julien and Steven Rutman brokered the deal on behalf of Benchmark.

A Benchmark spokesperson declined to comment on the transaction, while Rich International did not return requests for comment.

Benchmark has been busy over the past year, capitalizing on a portfolio of multifamily assets located across the city. In March, the firm sold a 94-unit rental building near Gramercy Park to New York University for $87.5 million, and offloaded a pair of Chelsea rental buildings for $26.5 million in November.

The company is also marketing the residential component of a 54-unit mixed-use property in the East Village for $65 million, as The Real Deal reported last month, and is looking to sell a 20-unit Brooklyn Heights rental building as a $22 million single-family home.