Former Extell Development acquisitions guru Dov Hertz closed on his first deal since starting his own firm last year, buying a trio of apartment buildings in Brooklyn with the Fruchthandler family and flipping the contracts on five other properties to Icon Realty Management and Benchmark Real Estate Group.
The total sale price on EJ Realty’s eight-building package was $141.5 million, according to property records filed with the city Tuesday. EJ Realty is led by Efraim Lesser and Jeffrey Braun, father-in-law to Extell chief Gary Barnett. Hertz worked for Extell for 13 years before stepping down to start his own investment firm.
“This was the first deal I did in my new company,” Hertz told The Real Deal. “It was a complex deal. I had a very good relationship with the sellers.”
Hertz’s DH Property, along with the Fruchthandlers, bought three residential rental buildings from EJ Realty in Brooklyn at 130 East 18th Street, 625 Marlborough Road and 105-131 East 86th Street for $27 million. The company financed the purchase with a $19.7 million loan from Signature Bank, property records show.
DH Property flipped the contracts on the remainder of the buildings. Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen’s Icon Realty Management picked up the residential rental building at 59 East 3rd Street and the 11-story office building at 109 West 27th Street, the only commercial property in the portfolio, for $55 million. Mesa West provided $20.3 million in financing.
The final slice of the portfolio went to Jordan Vogel’s Benchmark Real Estate, which bought three Tribeca buildings — 41 White Street, 45 White Street and 74 Franklin Street — for $59.5 million, as Real Estate Weekly originally reported. Signature Bank provided $25.3 million in financing. Barak Jacobov of GFI Realty Services represented both sides on the Tribeca deals.
The deal also includes a property in Passaic, New Jersey, that DH Property bought for $10 million.