Silverstone to bring high-end condos to Dumbo site

Manhattan-based real estate investment company Silverstone Property has acquired a three-story manufacturing building at 51 Jay Street in Dumbo for $45 million, principal Martin Nussbaum told The Real Deal today.

Following yesterday’s closing, the company plans to bring large high-end condominiums to the site, Nussbaum said. Silverstone, working with ODA Architecture, the firm behind the design of Manhattan’s 93 Worth Street condos, is planning to convert and extend the building, which will ultimately have between 85 and 90 large apartments spread over six floors.

“We think this is a very strong family market,” Nussbaum told The Real Deal of the demand for condo product in Brooklyn. “There’s very little, if any, competition right now for that type of product.”

Silverstone appears to have purchased the property from Rabsky Development, the Brooklyn-based company headed by developer Simon Dushinsky.

Dushinsky purchased the site in December 2012 for just $25 million, city records show.

While Nussbaum declined to comment on the identity of the seller, he said that the previous owners had paved the way for the project by securing approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to add an additional 50,000 to 75,000 square feet of residential space over two or three stories to the existing building, thus creating a 150,000-square-foot mixed-use development site.

Stephen Palmese of Massey Knakal Realty Services, who was not involved in the Silverstone deal but represented the seller in the December transaction to Rabsky, said Dushinsky’s company had successfully added value to the property by securing the necessary approvals. It was not immediately clear if there were brokers involved in Silverstone’s deal.

Nussbaum said he anticipates construction to begin on the condominium project in the next six to nine months, with completion scheduled for the beginning of 2015.

“We’ve been able to capitalize the deal,” he said when asked about obtaining financing for the project. “We’re going to redo all the plans and we’ll go after a construction loan once we have everything ready to go. We’ll put ourselves out in the market for [a construction loan] in the next three to four months.”

While the Silverstone executive declined to comment directly on the prices he’s hoping to charge for the units, he said he has seen recent trades north of $1,400 or $1,500 a square foot for penthouse-type units in the area, while non-penthouse units have been trading at around $1,100 or $1,200 a foot.

Halstead Property Development Marketing will likely head sales at the project, he said.

Silverstone was previously reported to have purchased the property in December, rather than yesterday. In fact, the buyer at the time was Rabsky, which then flipped the site to Silverstone.