Lightstone pays $63M for Lower Manhattan development site

Updated: 2:55 p.m., Jan. 23

The Lightstone Group has purchased a cluster of Three Buildings On Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan, as well as air rights for three adjacent properties owned by Time Equities, according to city records. The deal is worth roughly $63 million, sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal. Moreover, Lightstone has permission to demolish the three buildings, one source said, and may develop a mixed-use property. According to The Real Deal’s calculations, the development could exceed 300,000 square feet.

Meir Milgraum, Lightstone’s director of acquisitions, orchestrated the deal, which had been in the works for several months, a source said. The development site is nestled between Fulton, Nassau, Dutch and John Streets.

Lightstone paid $24 million for 114 Fulton Street, a six-story, 20,461-square-foot mixed-use building from Castega 114-116 Fulton Street LLC. The developer also shelled out $14 million for 120 Fulton Street, a four-story, 15,600-square-foot mixed-use building from 120 Fulton Realty, a company owned by William Hocking and Raymond Sauerbrey, executives at brokerage Dalton Reid LLC.

In addition, the company is in contract to buy 112 Fulton Street, a five-story, 10,425-square-foot mixed-use building. The building was purchased in March by hotel owner Suey Jin Lam for $4.45 million, city records show.

Lightstone has also purchased the majority of the air rights for 80 Nassau Street, 15 Dutch Street and 41 John Street, three mixed-use properties owned by Time Equities, records show. Francis Greenburger, chairman and chief executive officer of Time Equities, said that Lightstone had put down a “very large deposit so that their position could be secured.” The sale is expected to close May 1, Greenburger said, and added that the deal was negotiated with a third party who controlled the sites and then sold the package to Lightstone.

The rights purchased from Time total 194,069 square feet, giving Lightstone development rights of 318,514 square feet once the three purchased buildings are cleared, according to The Real Deal’s calculations.

Lightstone Group, one of the largest private real estate owners in the country, has recently begun to assert its presence in New York City, as The Real Dealpreviously reported. The firm has projects in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, including a massive mixed-use development planned on the Gowanus Canal.

Representatives from Lightstone did not respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Adam Pincus