In the world of mid-market New York City investment sales last week, the Durst Organization picked up two East Harlem lots for $18 million and Bushberg Properties sold a Brooklyn development site for seven times what they paid for it.
1.) The Durst Organization expanded its East Harlem assemblage with two lots opposite its Park Avenue development site. Durst paid $18.2 million for a 8,820-square-foot parking lot at 1801 Park Avenue, at the corner of East 124th Street, and a second lot back-to-back with the first, at 110 East 125th Streets. The property is opposite Durst’s massive development at 1800 Park Avenue, located next to the subway and MetroNorth station on East 125th Street. Durst bought the property from Ian Bruce Eichner for $91 million in 2016, and has not yet disclosed its plans for the site.
2.) Marc Jacobowitz’s Bluejay Management picked up a development site in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens from Bushburg Properties for $13.5 million. In 2014, Bushberg, led by Joseph Hoffman, bought three single-family homes at 50-54 Clarkson Avenue for a total of $1.75 million and razed them to make way for a nine-story rental building. The land is currently vacant and Bluejay intends to keep the original plans, which will bring 93 residential across 65,365 square feet, as per the initial DOB plans. In 2012, Bluejay bought another stalled project in Crown Heights, a 63-unit project at 341 Eastern Parkway that was completed in 2014.
3.) The Manocherian Brothers, through an entity called Fameco LLC, bought a seven-story multifamily building in Sutton Place for $16.9 million. The rent-regulated property has 41 units, 40 of which are studio or alcove apartments. The Manocherian family owns a cluster of buildings under the same entity, Fameco LLC, on the Upper East Side, as well as the New York Health & Racquet Club and Pan Am Equities. The seller was the Dermisksian family which owned the property since 1987.
4.) Brian Lefkowitz, a Brooklyn-based landlord, bought a six-story building at 2018 Monterey Avenue in the Bronx for $10.7 million. The 7 1-unit Tremont building is rent stabilized and sold for $8.6 million in 2016. The previous owner was UA Builders Group, whose principal Granit Gjonblaj, is now WeWork’s head of construction and development. Lefkowitz, doing business as the non-profit Mosods Satmar BP, is also the developer behind a six-story school at 6202 14th Avenue near Borough Park.
(Source: ACRIS data for closed sales between July 16-23, and Reonomy data)