Thor Equities’ [TRDataCustom] former multifamily acquisition heads are in contract on their first deal with their new firm. The property is a large Bronx rental building that their former employer sought to get out of buying after they left.
Alan Klein and Jonathan Fishman’s Weaver Street Partners entered contract Tuesday to acquire a 182-unit, 280,000-square-foot rent-stabilized building at 975 Walton Avenue for $37.2 million, sources told The Real Deal. Joseph Sitt’s Thor had signed a contract to pay $42.5 million for the property in September 2016, and this spring, was negotiating with the seller, Brooklyn investor Benzion Kohn, to exit the deal prior to closing. The property offers a total of 350,000 buildable square feet.
Klein and Fishman, who spent more than three years running a residential division at Thor they had launched, left the firm in March. The duo formed Weaver Street Partners, a multifamily investment firm backed by Midtown-based Silverpeak Real Estate Partners.
If the deal were to close, Thor would not have an equity stake in the six-story property, said sources involved with negotiations.
Sources inside Thor said in June that the firm’s change of heart was over the condition of the building rather the overall company strategy. Other sources familiar with the negotiations, however, said Thor’s investors in the deal did not back the firm after Klein and Fishman left because Thor lacked multifamily acquisition experience without them.
Steven Vegh
Westwood Realty Associates’ Steven Vegh, who brokered the deal, declined to comment, as did Weaver Street. Kohn could not be reached.
The price per square foot in this new deal is roughly $133, down from nearly $152 when Thor went into contract.
The Bronx has seen a flurry of multifamily deals in the past month alone, from Brooklyn Standard Properties and Cohen Commercial Properties’ 10-building purchase for $26.5 million; Michael Rubin’s eight-building purchase for $35 million; and Eric Silverstein’s pending sales of two buildings for $45 million.