Ariel Lahmi’s Beekman Real Estate Investment Management has picked up a vacant Midtown office condominium at the base of a 47-story residential tower, sources told The Real Deal.
Beekman paid north of $46 million for the six-story, 56,000-square-foot property at 133-135 West 52nd Street from MRP Realty and its Boston-based private equity partner Long Wharf Real Estate Ventures, sources said.
MRP and Long Wharf have owned the condo for two-and-a-half years. In September 2015, they bought it for $36.3 million from the Chetrit Group, which was converting the upper floors from hotel rooms known as Flatotel into apartments at the time. The condo conversion was at the center of a lawsuit accusing Chetrit of accepting $40 million in laundered funds out of Kazakhstan; the suit was settled in November 2015.
After buying the commercial condo, MRP and Long Wharf added prebuilt office space and upgraded the lobby.
Lahmi is planning to renovate the property and is considering moving his company into one of the floors, sources said. The deal closed Friday for around $770 per square foot.
A JLL team led by Anthony Ledesma, Yoav Oelsner and Glenn Tolchin represented the sellers in the deal. The brokers declined to comment, and the buyers and sellers could not be reached.
Lahmi’s firm acquired a Tribeca commercial building in August for more than $1,000 per square foot, and co-owns the Murray Hill rental building at 30 Park Avenue with Ruby Schron.