Blackstone lends Clipper $74M for BK rental

REIT paid $87.5M to Jehovah's Witnesses for 107 Columbia Heights

107 Columbia Heights and David Bistricer
107 Columbia Heights and David Bistricer

David Bistricer’s Clipper Realty landed $74 million in financing from the Blackstone Group for its acquisition of 107 Columbia Heights, a 161-unit rental building in Brooklyn Heights.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust is providing a $59 million acquisition loan and $14.6 million in construction financing, according to loan documents that hit public records Friday. Clipper closed on the $87.5 million purchase from the Jehovah’s Witnesses earlier this week.

The financing was arranged by Robert Verrone and Robert Vernicek of Iron Hound Management Company.

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The purchase is Clipper’s first as a publicly traded company after its $86 million IPO earlier this year. The REIT entered into an agreement to buy the 154,000-square-foot building for $569 a square foot in February. The Witnesses put the 11-story property on the market last April, amid its exodus from Brooklyn in a series of deals in recent months. “The property served us well for more than 50 years,” the Witnesses said in a statement.

Bistricer previously told The Real Deal the REIT would convert several public spaces at 107 Columbia Heights into additional apartments.

In addition to 107 Columbia Heights, Bistricer owns the nearby Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street through Clipper Equity, the family office started by his father in the 1950s. Clipper Equity and the Chetrit Group paid $81 million for the property in 2012.