Trion picks up four Washington Heights buildings for $31M

Carmelo Milio’s Trion Real Estate Management, a Yonkers-based investment firm, picked up a four-building Washington Heights portfolio for $31.2 million Thursday, less than two years after it last sold, sources told The Real Deal.

The package includes three adjacent rental buildings at 554-558 West 181st Street and one rental property across the street at 565 West 181st Street. All of the buildings are five-story walk-ups with ground-floor retail. Footwear chain PayLess ShoeSource, which occupies the largest retail space in the portfolio, recently renewed its lease for two more years.

The sellers are Aaron Drazin and Bruno Caruso’s Montreal-based Crest Realties and Chaim Simkowitz’s Brooklyn-based Guardian Realty Management, which paid $23.5 million in 2014, records show.

Collectively, the buildings have 76,000 square feet and 55 rental units.

The apartments are a mix of market-rate and rent-stabilized units. Crest and Guardian converted more than 30 percent of the rent-stabilized to market-rate units, Caruso said.

Daniel Pollak of ZP Realty Capital represented both sides in the deal.

In the past year, Crest has been busy selling some of its assets, including a Washington Heights rental at 4300 Broadway for $23 million and a Carroll Gardens condominium-to-rental conversion at 100 Luquer Street for $21 million.

Milio could not be reached for comment.