Investors flip NYC industrial, hotel, office buildings in pre-holiday frenzy

Hot deals before hot meals.

Property owners cooked up some tasty investment sales ahead of Thanksgiving, with offices, industrial buildings and a hotel represented among the top deals in TRD’s expanded mid-market report, which now covers deals up to $40 million.

Premier Equities snatched up a vacant office building near Columbia University, Prologis bought industrial space in Long Island City and Intercontinental Hotels Group sold a hotel in Brooklyn. Eric Nelson, an ex-business partner of Michael Cohen’s, sold an apartment building on the Upper East Side, months after a lawsuit alleged illegal rent deregulation, and a developer sold an empty lot on Queens Boulevard for 35 percent more than he paid for it three years ago.

Manhattan notched seven investment sales in the mid-market range last week, Brooklyn captured five, Queens had two and the Bronx had one. The 15 sales fetched a total of $265 million.

Below are more details on investment sales between $10 million and $40 million recorded in the third week of November.

1. A joint venture between Premier Equities and Angelo Gordon purchased a 31,000-square-foot office building at 2871 Broadway in Morningside Heights for $35 million. The seven-story building is currently unoccupied and comes with 29,000-square-feet of air rights. The seller was Longfellow Properties. Ladder Capital financed the purchase with a $30 million loan, which it then sold to securities investors as a collateralized loan obligation.

2. TF Cornerstone sold a vacant 70,000-square-foot lot at 38-21 12th Street in Long Island City for $35 million to industrial giant Prologis. TF Cornerstone bought the site in 2018 for $26 million. 

3. Intercontinental Hotels Group sold the 202-key EVEN Hotel at 46 Nevins Street in Downtown Brooklyn, for $29.7 million. The hotel has 13 stories and spans 83,500 square feet. The buyer was Shai Shamar of limited liability company T-R 46 Nevins Owner. Intercontinental bought the property in 2013 for $19 million. 

4. Greenland USA, a subsidiary of China’s Greenland Group, bought the ground leases at 617 Pacific Street and 15 Fourth Avenue, across from the Barclays Center in Park Slope, for $19.1 million. The properties, which span 48,000 square feet and form part of the Pacific Park development begun by Mayor Bloomberg under the name Atlantic Yards, were long mired in an eminent domain dispute with P.C. Richards. Greenland filed plans in May for a 41-story, mixed-use building at nearby 700 Atlantic Avenue.

5. Glacier Equities and Meadow Partners bought 8 Grand Avenue and 10 Grand Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard for $17.3 million. Fortress Investment Group provided $22.5 million in financing. Glacier will reportedly use $6 million to renovate and lease the properties which include 40 residential units controlled by the city’s Loft Board. The buildings span a combined 73,700 square feet. The seller, Workable City, bought the buildings in 2018 for $20.6 million. 

6. Christopher Okada’s Okada & Company bought a 42,700-square-foot, mixed-use building at 109 West 24th Street n Chelsea for $16.3 million. Montauk Rug & Carpet sold the seven-story building, which it had owned since 1986.

7. Marylu III Corp. bought a 33 percent stake in two commercial condo units spanning 47,500 square feet at 140 East 63rd Street in Lenox Hill for $16.2 million. The smaller of the two is 4,660 square feet, per the building’s condo declaration. Limited liability company Fraydun Enterprises was the seller.

8. Yousef Althkefati bought a 37,700-square-foot retail building at 943 Kings Highway in Midwood, Brooklyn, for $14.3 million. Harriet Kirshner was the seller.

9. David Schwartz’s Slate Property Group bought a 12,300-square-foot lot at 92-54 Queens Boulevard in Rego Park, Queens, for $13.1 million. Xiao Jun Chen was the seller, through limited liability company WLHC Rego Park, which purchased the property in 2018 for $9.7 million. 

10. Mark Kalimian’s Abington Properties sold a 23,500-square-foot apartment building at 425 East 80th Street in Yorkville for $12.7 million. An affiliate of Monarch Realty Holdings was the buyer. Kalimian bought the property in 1977.

11. An affiliate of Chestnut Holdings sold a 100,000-square-foot residential building at 2961 Marion Avenue in Bedford Park, Bronx, for $12.5 million. Yellowstone Properties was the seller.

12. Lonicera Partners bought a 5,100-square-foot, mixed-use building at 287 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn for $12 million. Matthew and Steven Mirones were the sellers.

13. The Amirian Group bought a 4,800-square-foot multifamily building at 36 West 11th Street  in Greenwich Village for $11 million. The building has four units and was marketed as a potential single-family conversion. The Bartle Family was the seller.

14. Eric Nelson, the ex-business partner of Michael Cohen, sold a 71,000-square-foot apartment building at 330 East 63rd Street in Lenox Hill for $11 million following allegations of illegal deregulation and fraudulent billing at the property. The buyer was Herbert Chaves of Nevins Canal Corp.

15. Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities sold a 5,200-square-foot retail building at 725 Eighth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen for $10.3 million. EFT Capital Servicing was the buyer. Thor bought the building in 2013 for $12.2 million.