Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities closed late last week on a residential and retail portfolio adjacent to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for $23 million in an off-market transaction, The Real Deal has learned.
The mixed-use development, known as Atlantic Gardens, consists of 24 rental units and nine retail shops along Atlantic between Third and Fourth avenues, seller Bennat Berger of BCB Properties told TRD. BCB and Arik Lifshitz of DSA Management had purchased the assets, 525-541 Atlantic Avenue, for $10.93 million just two years before, according to city records, but Berger said the actual price was closer to $11.25 million.
Why did the seller opt to unload now? “Because we made a lot of money,” Berger said.
DSA, a Manhattan-based family-owned developer, and Berger bought the properties in a joint venture with the intention of holding them after making improvements, Lifshitz said. But the unsolicited offer from Thor was “too good to pass up,” he said. “We decided to go ahead and reallocate our equity and our time to new projects.”
Sitt plans to “reposition” the retail, Berger said.
Sitt was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier this year, Thor bought the mixed-use property at 292-294 Atlantic Avenue, down the block at the corner of Smith Street, for $5.2 million – well over the $4 million ask, reports show.
The area has seen retail rents rise in the shadow of the Barclays Center, which opened last October. Michael Pintchik of local landlord Pintchik Development said rents on Flatbush Avenue have risen from $50 or $55 per square foot to more than $175 per square foot while the Barlcays complex was under construction.