LIVWRK is now partner on Cornell’s 200 Kent

Asher Abehsera’s LIVWRK is now a partner on Cornell Realty Management’s office-and-retail project on the Williamsburg waterfront and will be taking the lead on developing it, sources told The Real Deal.

The developer recently joined the partnership in the roughly 110,000-square-foot project at 200 Kent Avenue, which will be anchored by a Trader Joe’s supermarket.

The deal brings the project’s total market capitalization to $70 million, sources said. The size of LIVWRK’s investment was not immediately clear.

Cornell Realty, led by Isaac Hager, acquired the vacant lot last year for $33 million and then signed Trader Joe’s to about 18,000 square feet.  In the past month, the firm locked in a $64 million construction loan from Madison Realty Capital and broke ground on the site.

LIVWRK, a frequent partner of Kushner Companies on Brooklyn developments, will also head up the building’s design and the leasing of the available retail and office and retail space, sources said. The six-story property is slated to have 35,000 square feet of offices, 35,000 square feet of retail and 40,000 square feet of garage parking. The project is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2019.

A representative for LIVWRK declined to comment, and Cornell Realty could not be reached.

Abehsera and Hager have done one deal together in the past, though not as partners. Abehsera bought a Crown Heights development site at 109-111 Montgomery Street for $24.5 million from Hager in 2015.