Real estate newcomers pay $900 per foot for Brooklyn retail

The legendary Triangle Sports building, located on a three-sided parcel at 182 Flatbush Avenue, across from the Barclays Center, was sold to Redsky Capital for $4.1 million, the Brooklyn Paper reported. The building had been on the market since January, when store co-owner Henry Rosa enlisted Geoffrey Bailey, director at brokerage TerraCRG, to find a buyer.

The purchaser is a group headed by two 2006 graduates of Cornell University, Benjamin Bernstein and Benjamin Stokes, that has amassed a portfolio of 170 Brooklyn apartments and six-figures of commercial square-footage. But they paid a hefty price for this acquisition.

“It was a very strong offer,” Bailey told the Brooklyn Paper. “When it records, it will be a record for a vacant three-story building in Brooklyn — $900 a square foot for a vacant retail property is outstanding, throughout the borough and beyond.”

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When the building hit the market retail rents in the area were reportedly $50 to $60 per square foot.

Rosa, who sought a sale because of the changing environment around the Barclays Center, said Redsky plans to keep the existing structure and renovate the exterior. The firm is also an investor in the Bedford Avenue project across from the forthcoming Whole Foods and has plans to build luxury towers on the Greenpoint waterfront. [Brooklyn Paper]Adam Fusfeld