Glamorous high-end deals have become common in Brooklyn’s real estate market over the past few years, but during the second quarter of 2017, the biggest deal in the borough was fairly pedestrian: the city’s fairly contentious $160 million purchase of a Williamsburg storage facility.
Residential sales dominated the list overall, taking up five of the top 10 spots from April 1 to June 30, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. The list also included three industrial sales and one office sale.
The top 10 sales were worth about $468.3 million in total. Although this is much less than the roughly $1 billion worth of deals that took place in Brooklyn during the year’s first quarter, the difference is largely due to that quarter’s $600 million purchase of a Dumbo Heights portfolio by Kushner Companies, LIVWRK and RFR Realty. Additionally, Real Capital Analytics did not include a price for the 109 Montgomery Street deal in the second quarter.
Notable Brooklyn deals from the second quarter include the sale of another Jehovah’s Witnesses building for $87.5 million and the Rabsky Group’s purchase of 633 Fulton Street for $68 million.
The full list of Brooklyn’s top 10 sales is as follows:
1. CitiStorage, $160 million
Buyer: City of New York
Seller: Norman Brodsky, Samuel Kaplan, Louis Weine and Sindy Weine
The city’s April purchase of this 258,400-square-foot storage facility in Williamsburg was the largest Brooklyn deal by a wide margin. The property previously grabbed headlines in 2015, when it was badly damaged in a four-alarm fire. However, no injuries were reported. For months the city had haggled with the sellers over the price.
107 Columbia Heights (Credit: Jehovah’s Witnesses)
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses, $87.5 million
Buyer: Clipper Equity
Seller: Jehovah’s Witnesses
Clipper Equity’s first action as a publicly traded company was to purchase this 11-story Brooklyn Heights building at 107 Columbia Heights. The firm plans to renovate the rental building and convert several of its public spaces into apartments.
3. 633 Fulton Street, $68 million
Buyer: Rabsky Group
Seller: JJ Operating
Rabsky Group purchased this 36,000-square-foot property in May as part of its expansion plans for a Downtown Brooklyn skyscraper. The company was initially planning to build a 36-story office tower that was roughly 618,000 square feet, but the addition of 633 Fulton Street gives them 770,000 square feet of space to work with.
4. 109 Montgomery Street
Buyer: CIM Group
Seller: LIVWRK
CIM Group purchased this 12-story Crown Heights building with 173 units from LIVWRK in June. Real Capital Analytics did not publish a sales price but believes it is likely still in the top 10 Brooklyn deals. LIVWRK has retained an interest in the property.
5. 61 North 11th Street, $35.5 million
Buyer: CW Realty
Seller: Eleven North Capital
Brokerage: Cushman & Wakefield
CW Realty purchased this 42,000-square-foot industrial property in May with plans to demolish it. They will be able to redevelop up to 575,000 square feet if they include an affordable housing component.
6. 70 Dahill Road, $33 million
Buyer: DiMaggio Realty
Seller: First Ocean Realty, Sentinel Real Estate
Brokerage: Rosewood Realty
DiMaggio Realty purchased this 122-unit rental building in Kensington in June. The 149,450-square-foot, six-story property is rent-stabilized, as are multiple other properties that DiMaggio owns in Brooklyn.
Rendering of 722 Metropolitan Avenue
7. 722 Metropolitan Avenue, approximately $23.3 million
Buyer: SL Development
Seller: Barnett Brickner
Brokerage: JLL, Kassin Sabbagh Realty
SL Development plans to convert this Williamsburg warehouse into a residential building with 69 condominiums. The 34,500-square-foot building comes with roughly 70,000 square feet of development rights, and SL plans to add four stories to the building and put retail in on the ground floor.
218 South 3rd Street (Credit: CityRealty)
8. 218 South 3rd Street, $23 million
Buyer: Millennium Venture Capital
Seller: BCB Property Management, Hager Pacific Properties
Brokerage: TerraCRG
This Williamsburg building is Millennium’s first purchase in New York City. The six-story building contains 41 units, and BCB had purchased it in 2014 for $12.8 million.
9. 380 Lefferts Avenue, $20 million
Buyer: Joseph Weiss
Seller: The Marcal Group
Weiss purchased this seven-story building with 46 units in May for $20 million. It was built in 2009, and the Marcal Group had purchased it in 2014 for $6 million.
10. 148 Green Street, $18 million
Buyer: Green Art Holdings LLC
Seller: South China Import
Green Art purchased this two-story warehouse building in June. The building was constructed in 1931 and spans 17,200 square feet of space.