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Billy Macklowe, David Welsh close on Brooklyn dev site buy
Developers paid $59M for Key Food location in Park Slope
Billy Macklowe and David Welsh have closed on the acquisition of a controversial Park Slope development site for just over $59 million.
The William Macklowe Company and Welsh’s newly formed Senlac Ridge Partners completed a deal on Friday for the buy of a Key Food grocery store from Avery Hall Investments, according to sources. The firms will jointly develop the property at 120 Fifth Avenue, which is about five blocks south of Barclays Center.
The large store and parking lot, bound by Gregory Place, Baltic Street and Fifth Avenue, is likely the largest development site in Park Slope.
Brian Ezra, founding principal of Avery Hall, tapped Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Douglas Harmon, Adam Doneger and Dan O’Brien last fall to market the site. The developers and brokers could not be reached for comment.
The original contract was first reported by the New York Post after Welsh formed Senlac Ridge.
Avery Hall paid $45.68 million to buy the site from Pick Quick Foods in 2017. The sale to Macklowe and Welsh includes plans by SLCE Architects, which were created to address community concern over the affordable grocery store being replaced.
The development — Macklowe’s first in Brooklyn — calls for two buildings with 165 residential units, 25 percent of which will be set aside as affordable housing. There will be 90,000 square feet of retail, 220 parking spaces, shared outdoor space and a fitness center. Other amenities will be added as the design progresses.
Sources say Macklowe and the Senlac Ridge team plan to tweak the design to address new health and safety issues that have been generated by the coronavirus pandemic. The developers also plan on adding more environmentally friendly materials.
Welsh formed Senlac Ridge in January with Finn Wentworth and Georgios Vlamis, former principals at Normandy Real Estate Partners. The firm had sold most of its operations and development business to Columbia Property Trust for $100 million in late 2019.
In an email to friends that was seen by The Real Deal, Welsh described Senlac Ridge as an “entrepreneurial PE firm targeting a broad range of investment opportunities spanning real estate and non-real estate assets and businesses.”