Schlesinger family’s Copperline buys Tribeca building for $21M

Buyer snapped up property quickly in 1031-exchange deal

74 Leonard Street
74 Leonard Street

The Schlesinger family’s Copperline Partners bought a six-story elevator building in Tribeca’s eastern historic district for $21 million.

The family firm – which owns multifamily properties in New York, Florida and Connecticut – paid $21.3 million to buy the 18-unit prewar building at 74 Leonard Street from Spain-based Allegra Holdings, parties close to the transaction told The Real Deal.

Copperline, headed by Robert and Adam Schlesinger, went into contract and closed on the property in the same day. The buyer was on a short timeline to make a purchase through a 1031 exchange, the property-tax loophole that some speculate could be eliminated as part of President Donald Trump’s tax-reform agenda.

“There was talk a while ago about somehow altering the 1031 program, and this just continues to highlight – at least as far as far as this transaction is concerned – how important it is to the market,” said Meridian Capital’s [TRDataCustom] David Schechtman, who helped negotiate the off-market deal.

Representatives for Copperline and Allegra could not be immediately reached for comment. Allegra bought the property in 2012 for $13.7 million, property records show, and was able to push rents and reposition the building’s retail component.

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The building sits on the south side of Leonard Street Between Church Street And Broadway, a hotbed of development activity in East Tribeca.

A few doors down on the northern side of Leonard, Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate is marketing its condo-conversion of the cast iron building at 87 Leonard Street. At the western end of the block on the other side of Church, hedge funder Leon Shaulov last month dropped $27 million to buy one of the penthouses at Alexico Group and Hines’ long-in-the-making 56 Leonard Street. And at the other end of the block across Broadway, Bizzi & Partners is converting the 117,000-square-foot office building at 101 Leonard Street into 66 condos.

Meridian’s Abie Kassin, who worked on the Meridian team that also included Jonathan Birnbaum and Adam Sprung, said the property has the potential to be converted into condominium units, but it’s still early to tell what Copperline has planned.

Copperline earlier this year raised $75 million on the Israeli bond market.

(To view more commercial sales transactions in Tribeca, click here)