American Realty Advisors eats $10.7M on Williamsburg sale

Eight years ago a California firm bought a Williamsburg apartment building for about $900,000 per unit — the most ever paid for a multifamily building in Brooklyn.

The market never caught up.

Now the buyer, American Realty Advisors, a Glendale, Calif.-based institutional investor and manager, is moving on. It has sold the luxury rental building at 111 Kent Avenue for $10.7 million less than it paid.

The company, which shelled out $56 million for the 82,081-square-foot building in 2012, sold it for $45.3 million in a transaction that closed Aug. 14, according to public records.

The Real Deal examined a sample of nine multifamily buildings sold in Williamsburg in the first half of 2020 and found only one where the price per unit exceeded what ARA originally paid.

ARA’s investment was in part a victim of the real estate cycle. The market began running up in 2012 and peaked in 2015, said Ofer Cohen, founder and president of TerraCRG, a Brooklyn-focused commercial brokerage.

An ARA representative declined to comment about what motivated its sale of the property.

Beijing-based property developer Yihai Group purchased the building through its North American division, according to the website Traded, which first reported the transaction.

Available units in the building include a three-bedroom, two-bathroom for $6,497 after a rent concession of 1.5 months, and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom for $4,633 after the same concession, according to StreetEasy.

Originally conceived as a condo project, the building broke ground in 2007 before the developer defaulted on its financing. The land for the building was purchased for $15.7 million.

Garrison Investment Group bought the property for $43 million in 2010 when nine units had sold. Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management decided in 2011 to convert the building to rentals, committing $8 million, adding amenities and completing the conversion.

Contact Orion Jones at orion.jones@therealdeal.com