1.) The New York City Construction Authority bought a vacant lot in Gowanus where the agency plans to build a pre-K center, for $15 million. The Construction Authority announced plans to build a 180-seat school on the lot located at 197 Ninth Street, in 2015. Historians believe the 13,500-square-foot lot might be the site of a mass grave dating back to the Revolutionary War, and actor Patrick Stewart recently took up the cause to protect the site from developers. The seller, Derby Textile Company, has owned the site since 1971, and the last building on the property burned in 1989. Sources said the city agency will be testing the site to see if there’s a mass grave.
2.) Joel Weiner’s Pinnacle Group [TRDataCustom] sold a pair of multifamily Washington Heights buildings with a combined 60 units for $14.1 million to Barberry Rose Management. The two adjacent six-story buildings, at 565 and 571 West 175th Street, have 30 residential units each and are fully rent-regulated. Weiner bought the two 24,144-square foot buildings, located between Audubon Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue, for $11.3 million in 2003.
3.) EJ Electric Installation Co. picked up an industrial building in the Bronx for $10 million. The 22,000-square-foot building at 1541 Bronx River Avenue is located at the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Bronx River Parkway in Van Nest. EJ Electric, founded in 1899 and headed by J Robert Mann Jr., is an electrical contracting company headquartered in Long Island City, where it owns a 9,500-square-foot office building at 46-41 Vernon Boulevard. The seller, Sal Ciminello, has owned the property since 1999.
4.) Bentley Zhao’s New Empire Real Estate sold off a Hell’s Kitchen development site for $15 million to the Coram Deo Church. Zhao bought the vacant lot at 409 West 45th Street in 2014 for $5.3 million, and planned to build a seven-story boutique condominium building on the site. The plans for the 10-unit, 11,872-square-foot building were approved in 2015 but the project, set for a 2016 finish date, has yet to be completed.
5.) The city’s Economic Development Corporation bought a 70,000-square-foot office building in Coney Island for $13 million. The three-story building at 3050 West 21st Street, located between Surf Avenue and the beach, is currently home to the Coney Island Medicaid Office. The previous owners were a group of investors including Joe Lieberman and Lawrence Rosenzweig.
(Source: ACRIS data for closed sales between June 5-11, and Reonomy data)
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