Yeshiva sells Cardozo housing in Greenwich Village for $58M

SoFla-based Pebb Capital to "dramatically upgrade" 98 vacant condos, co-ops

From left: Pebb Capital's Todd Rosenberg, 13-15 East 11th Street and Rosewood Realty Group's Aaron Jungreis
From left: Pebb Capital's Todd Rosenberg, 13-15 East 11th Street and Rosewood Realty Group's Aaron Jungreis

A subsidiary of South Florida-based investment firm Pebb Capital is breaking into New York City’s bulk condominium and co-op market with a new $58 million purchase.

Pebb’s subsidiary, Collegium Capital Partners, picked up 98 apartments – a mix of condos and co-ops – at a two-building Greenwich Village complex from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, sources told The Real Deal. The 56,000-square-foot component owned by Yeshiva comprises the majority of the 115-unit, 70,000-square-foot building at 13-19 East 11th Street.

Residents affiliated with 15 East 11th Apartment Corp. own the building’s remaining co-op units.

The nine-story complex, which is two buildings connected on the ground floor and lower level, is currently vacant. The students had moved out prior to the fall semester.

The all-cash deal closed Friday for $1,035 per square foot. Two months after entering contract in July, Pebb filed plans to renovate the units. Gene Kaufman [TRDataCustom] was hired as the architect for the renovation.

Pebb Capital plans to “dramatically upgrade” the apartments and will likely rent them out to Cardozo students, according to a source familiar with the deal. The new owner has not yet decided the new range of rents, the source said.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

According to StreetEasy, rents have ranged from $1,795 to $4,250 per month in recent years. Of the 98 apartments in the Yeshiva-owned component, 58 are studios.

In 1998, Yeshiva bought the apartments – constructed in 1903 – for $11.6 million and then rented the co-ops out to Cardozo law students. The university converted 78 of the apartments to condos and paid off about two-third of the co-op underlying mortgage. The complex, known as the Alabama, was constructed in 1903.

Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis represented both sides in the deal. He declined to comment, as did Pebb Capital. A Yeshiva spokesperson could not be immediately reached.

Pebb Capital and partners formed Collegium Capital Partners in 2014 to buy student housing nationally. This deal marks the group’s first purchase in New York.

Pebb Capital, led by Jeffrey and Todd Rosenberg, spun off from South Florida real estate heavyweight Pebb Enterprises in 2014. Two principals and five employees from Pebb Enterprises were killed in a plane crash late last year while scouting properties to purchase.

Yeshiva, which lost about $100 million in one-time trustee Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, has been tightening the belt in the years since. The institution sold 10 Washington Heights buildings to Ruby Schron for $72.5 million in 2014 and handed off operational control of Albert Einstein College in the Bronx to Montefiore Medical Center.