Thor buys Harlem rental for $23M

UPDATED, May 19, 12:26 p.m.: Though Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is selling a bevy of Fifth Avenue assets, the firm continues to make one-off multifamily plays in Upper Manhattan. Thor closed Tuesday on the $23.4 million purchase of a seven-story Harlem rental building, sources told The Real Deal.

The 40,000-square-foot prewar elevator building formerly known as the Jerome at 213-219 West 116th Street holds 39 apartments and a 5,500-square-foot retail component. The apartments, which either have two or three bedrooms, are a mix of rent-stabilized and market-rate units.

Ilana Kochen, an Upper East Side psychiatrist, and partners have owned the building for about 30 years, property records show. The property is located between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and St. Nicholas Avenue.

The deal closed for nearly $600 per square foot. Amit Doshi and Lynda Blumberg of Besen & Associates brokered the deal.

“This deal was on and off the market for practically 10 years,” Blumberg told TRD. “The time had finally come. The market actually caught up with sellers’ expectations.”

The property is the latest acquisition by Thor Equities’ residential arm, which is led by Stonehenge Partners alum Alan Klein and Jonathan Fishman. Over the past 15 months, the firm has spent roughly $140 million on Upper Manhattan purchases, including rental buildings at 98 Morningside Avenue ($21.6 million), 526 West 111th Street ($30 million), 17 West 125th Street ($30 million) and 556-566 West 126th Street ($34.4 million).

Like the other acquisitions, Thor is planning a long-term hold for the West 116th Street building, Klein said.

In recent months, Thor has also been actively looking to sell the majority of its holdings on Fifth Avenue. It’s shopping buildings at 134, 590 and 597 Fifth Avenue and the retail at 530 Fifth Avenue, which it co-owns with General Growth Properties. The firm is currently in contract to sell 693 Fifth Avenue for $525 million and the offices at 685 Fifth Avenue for $115 million.