Berger, Miller strike again with $25M Brooklyn Heights buy

Family sells Plymouth House to new JV after 50 years

From left: 111-115 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights (inset: Bennat Charatan Berger and Eric Roth)
From left: 111-115 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights (inset: Bennat Charatan Berger and Eric Roth)

For the first time in 50 years, the Plymouth House, a six-story Brooklyn Heights rental building, has sold – and not to the pilgrims.

Novel Property Ventures paid $25 million for the nearly 32,000-square-foot property at 111-115 Henry Street, just a week after making its debut purchase in the form of a 12-building portfolio, The Real Deal has learned.

BCB Property Management’s Bennat Charatan Berger and Excelsior Equities’ Andrew Miller, the heads of respective investment firms, launched the joint venture last month. The building, located near Clark Street in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, has 38 apartments and four ground-floor retail spaces.

Novel Property Ventures, which paid $781 per square foot in all cash, plans to keep the property as a rental, Berger said.

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The Heller family, associated with Melon Associates LLC, has owned it since 1960s, records show. Joseph Smith of Friedman-Roth Realty Services was pushing the family to sell over a 20-year period, according to Eric Roth, who also brokered the off-market deal with Roth.

“His diligence finally paid off,” Roth said, about Smith. “This business is about building relationships and then to execute when presented with an opportunity.”

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Benchmark Real Estate Group bought a 12-story rental building at 23-25 Monroe Place for north of $40 million, as TRD reported.