Highpoint Property Group buys East Village condo project for $25M

David Amirian's firm had put the new properties up for auction

A rendering of 436-442 East 13th Street with Drew Popkin of Highpoint Property Group (red) and David Amirian of The Amirian Group (blue) (Credit: The Amirian Group)
A rendering of 436-442 East 13th Street with Drew Popkin of Highpoint Property Group (red) and David Amirian of The Amirian Group (blue) (Credit: The Amirian Group)

Highpoint Property Group picked up a pair of recently completed East Village condo development from the Amirian Group for nearly $25 million.

The real estate firm led by Drew Popkin paid $24.74 million for 436 and 442 East 13th Street, with each six-story building priced at $12.37 million, according to property records filed with the city Monday. Los Angeles-based Thorofare Capital Inc. provided $14.25 million in financing for the deal.

“The opportunity to purchase high-end condo product in a super coveted location at a substantial discount to replacement cost was compelling,” Popkin said in an email.

David Amirian, founder and CEO of the Amirian Group, declined to comment.

Known as Thirteen East + West, the new development spans 25,444 square feet combined and had a projected sellout of $37 million, according to Paramount’s listing. With 12 full-floor units across both buildings, Highpoint’s deal prices out to under $2.1 million per unit. Popkin declined to detail the development’s next steps in response to a question about sales at the property.

The Amirian Group and its former partner Bridgeton Holdings acquired the site for the luxe residential project for $9.5 million in 2015. The development firm at one point considered refinancing the properties, which were completed in 2018, with traditional financing and allowing investors to get into the project using cryptocurrency.

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While real estate auction firm Paramount Realty USA had announced in December that it would be putting the properties on the auction block with a suggested value of $27 million to $29 million, Popkin said that his firm did not acquire the buildings through any auction.

Paramount’s website lists the properties as a “past auction,” and bidders had until Jan. 29 to hand in their offers. It was not immediately known if the auction occurred or was cancelled, and Paramount did not return requests for comment.

“The prospect of instant liquidity, both for my investors now and for my next projects going forward, justified going the auction route,” Amirian said in a statement at the time of the auction announcement, also noting that given current absorption rates, the condo could sell out most or all of its units in about a year.

The East Village in particular has a high level of condo inventory. In June, an analysis by The Real Deal found that the Lower East Side and East Village had the second-highest number of units in the pipeline in Manhattan.

Highpoint’s acquisition is the firm’s 20th since February 2017, and the firm now holds nine buildings in the East Village, said Popkin, the former head of acquisitions at the Naftali Group who co-founded Highpoint in 2016. Last year, Highpoint picked up a five-story walk-up at 174 First Avenue — a couple of blocks from its most recent buy — for $12.1 million.