Record-setting multifamily deal comes together in Brooklyn

Editor’s Note: On August 7, Bloomberg reported that the deal, which Dalan did in partnership with KKR, was valued at $860 million.

New York City’s flatlining real estate market is about to get a jolt.

Months into a languor brought on by the coronavirus, one of Brooklyn’s biggest landlords has struck a deal to sell a portfolio of rental buildings for $1.25 billion, sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal.

It’s the first such deal of its size to come together in the past year, and among the largest multifamily deals ever in Brooklyn.

Joseph Brunner and Abe Mandel’s Bruman Realty entered into contract earlier this week to sell the 14-building portfolio of residential rental buildings across Northern and Central Brooklyn to Manhattan-based investor Dalan Management, sources said.

The portfolio consists of relatively new buildings constructed in recent years under the city’s 421a tax abatement program. It spans 1.5 million square feet and includes roughly 1,275 residential rental units, a source said.

Representatives for Bruman and Dalan Management did not respond to requests for comment. A source familiar with the deal said Cignature Realty brokered the deal. A representative for Cignature did not respond to a request for comment.

It’s not entirely clear what motivated Bruman to sell. Brunner and Mandel are among the biggest landlords in Brooklyn, and part of the tight-knit group of Hasidic developers who have transformed much of the borough in the past 20 years.

People familiar with the offering said the two investors had put it on the market late last year.

The contract price works out near an eye-popping $1 million per unit, hardly firesale pricing.

Dalan, run by father-and-son Danny and Andrew Wrublin, owns about 1,500 apartments throughout the city, according to its website.

The company teamed up with Bain Capital and SKW Funding last year to form a joint venture looking to invest $500 million in equity to purchase distressed real estate assets. The Brooklyn portfolio is being purchased independent of that partnership, a source said.

One of the largest properties in the Brooklyn portfolio is the 286-unit rental tower at 260 Gold Street in Downtown, which is being valued at $250 million.

Other Properties include 1056 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint; 340 Evergreen Avenue, 889 Bushwick Avenue, 93 Linden Street and 23 Menahan Street in Bushwick; 75 Ralph Avenue, 1873 Atlantic Avenue, 1428 Fulton Street and 1134 Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant; and 296 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg.

The deal is the largest multifamily transaction to go into contract since L+M Development Partners and Invesco teamed up last July to buy Manhattan’s Putnam portfolio for $1.2 billion. And it’s the largest deal in Brooklyn since Starrett City traded in 2018 for $905 million.

Contact Rich Bockmann at rb@therealdeal.com or 908-415-5229

Contact James Kleimann at james@therealdeal.com or 201-994-9638