Icon sells Village rental building for $38M

Italian investor signed contract and closed 1031 deal on the same day

56 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village with Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen of Icon Realty Management
56 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village with Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen of Icon Realty Management

Icon Realty Management sold a nine-story rental building in the heart of Greenwich Village to an Italian investor for about $38 million.

Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen’s management firm sold the prewar elevator building at 56 West 11th Street to the overseas investor for $37.8 million in a 1031 exchange. The pricing on the 36-unit building between Fifth and Sixth avenues worked out to roughly $1.05 million per unit.

The buyer “didn’t want to repatriate the money to Italy and wanted to keep it here,” said Marcus and Millichap’s Peter Von Der Ahe, who negotiated both sides of the deal with his colleague Joe Koicim.

Marjorie Nesbitt of Eight Points Asset Management made the purchase on behalf of the Italian investor, which signed the contract and closed on the property on the same day in an all-cash deal, Koicim said. Eight Points Asset Management, which oversees investments for institutions and high-net-worth families, also controls a site near the High Line that is slated for a 1.1 million-square-foot tower.

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Copperline Partners recently signed and closed on the same day when it picked up an 18-unit Tribeca building for $21 million, also in an all-cash 1031 exchange deal.

Von Der Ahe said the buyer planned a long-term hold for the building, which Icon picked up in 2013 for $18.5 million, property records show. Jenny Protas, also of Marcus & Millichap, represented the buyer. The law firm Duane Morris represented Icon Realty in the deal and the law firm Paul Weiss represented the buyer.