Multifamily deals keep investment sales humming

Multifamily projects accounted for most of the 11 investment sales recorded last week in the middle range of the market, continuing a trend that saw sales of multifamily buildings increase by 77 percent in the third quarter. Buyers included Silverstein Properties, Maddd Equities and Jeffrey Elghanayan.

Brooklyn and Manhattan each notched four sales in the $10 million to $40 million range, while Queens and the Bronx each had two, including logistics firm Realterm buying 106,000 square feet of industrial space for $21 million. Industrial properties including last-mile-delivery warehouses continue to boom. 

Here are more details of mid-market commercial sales for the first week of December, which totaled $234 million, compared to $265 million for the week prior to Thanksgiving.

1. Silverstein Properties paid $39.8 million for three parcels spanning 63,400 square feet in Long Island City at 44-01 and 44-33 Northern Boulevard and 34-20 45th Street. The seller was Bruce Bendell. Silverstein filed plans in October to build a 428,000-square-foot building on the site, with 354 residential units. Demolition plans were filed in November.

2. Eli Weiss’ Joy Construction and Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities sold the ground lease at 67 Prince Street and an adjacent parcel in Downtown Brooklyn for $33.3 million to iStar. The developers bought the lots between 2018 and 2020 for a combined $36.6 million and plan to build a massive mixed-use building with 465 apartments. iStar, a serial buyer of ground leases, bought the land under RXR’s office building at 32 Old Slip in July for $91 million.

3. Jeffrey Elghanayan sold the ground underneath a 49,000-square-foot, mixed-use building with 81 residential units at 138 East 38th Street in Midtown East for $32.8 million. Safehold was the buyer. JLL Capital Markets’ Bob Knakal and Stephen Palmese represented the seller, who left the Elghanayan family real estate business for California in 1989. Following the death of their father, Nourallah, in 2009, the three other Elghanayan brothers divided the family’s real estate holdings (using a method based on game theory), with Henry and son Justin becoming principals of Rockrose Development, and Thomas and Frederick establishing TF Cornerstone.

4. An affiliate of logistics firm Realterm bought 106,000 square feet of land at 4825 and 4835 Baldwin Street in Wakefield, the Bronx, for $21 million. The seller was William Endico of Baldwin-Endico Realty Associates. The properties have 38,000 combined square feet of warehouse space.

5. An affiliate of Maddd Equities, McClellan Apts LLC, bought about half of the River Crest affordable housing development at 1184 River Avenue, ​near Yankee Stadium, for $20.3 million. The purchase includes 199,000 square feet of residential space, a 22,000-square-foot community center, a 19,400-square-foot commercial condo and a 17,200-square-foot parking lot, per the Bronx project’s offering plan. A partnership between Maddd and Joy Equities recently borrowed $140 million for the construction of a nearly 750,000-square-foot affordable housing project that will span 1164–1184 and 1159 River Avenue in the South Bronx.

6. Steven Kachanian’s Klosed Properties bought a 36,730-square-foot, mixed-use building at 2651 Broadway on the Upper West Side for $15.5 million. The seven-story building has 125 apartments, which are 96 percent vacant, and 14,300 square feet of air rights. Hank Freid of Helms Realty was the seller. Avison Young brokered the sale.

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7. Public labor union CWA Local 1180 sold a 7,100-square-foot commercial condo unit at 6 Harrison Street, once home to the New York Mercantile Exchange, in Tribeca for $14 million. The buyer was an anonymous LLC registered to an off-market condo unit at Ceruzzi Properties’ 138 East 50th Street.

8. Construction firm CAC Industries bought a 154,000-square-foot industrial property at 107-10 180th Street in Jamaica, Queens, for $13.8 million. Sheldon Schiff sold the property.

9. Adam Semler bought a 13,400-square-foot, mixed-use building at 9 Spring Street in Nolita for $11.3 million, through limited liability company Or 9 Spring. The seven-story building has 26 apartments and was sold by the Wong family.

10. Two limited liability companies affiliated with Hidrock Properties traded a 6,000-square-foot retail building at 32 5th Avenue in Park Slope for $11.1 million. ​​32 Fifth Brooklyn LLC sold the building to Atlantic State Brooklyn LLC. Insomnia Cookies leased its first Brooklyn space in the building in 2019.

11. Semler also bought a 14,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 233 South 1st Street in Williamsburg for $10.6 million, through limited liability company Or 233 S 1. Richard Solomon’s First Roebling Properties was the seller.

12. Fairstead sold a 16,300-square-foot, mixed-use building at 101 Delancey Street on the Lower East Side for $10.4 million. The building has 20 rental units. The buyer was an anonymous LLC, 101 Delancey Properties.