UPDATED, 12:18 p.m. Sept. 7: Zara Realty, a major player in southeast Queens real estate, purchased a pair of buildings in Jamaica for just under $20 million.
The company purchased the two six-story elevator apartment buildings at 88-22 Parsons Boulevard and 89-21 153rd Street—close to Rufus King Park—from Vincent Ragosta, who property records show purchased both buildings in 2014 for a total of $10.25 million.
The buildings contain a total of 82 mostly rent-stabilized apartments and one commercial unit, and the sales price of $19.5 million works out to roughly $235,000 per unit, according to Yosef Katz of GFI Realty, who represented Zara in the transaction. GFI’s Shlomo Antebi represented the seller, as did Darius Pereira.
Yosef Katz and Shlomo Antebi
Zara plans to renovate the buildings and hold onto them for the long haul, Katz said.
“They’re long-term players. They’re holding stuff for their grandkids,” he said. “It’s generational.”
Zara has built up a substantial profile of buildings in southeast Queens over the past few years, purchasing a six-building portfolio in Jamaica for $21.5 million and a 76-unit rental building in Elmhurst for $21.1 million in 2016.
A lawsuit recently accused the company of asking undocumented tenants about their visa status and posting signs in their buildings advertising a federal immigration tip line. Zara released a statement calling accusations of immigrant bias against it “outrageous,” adding that law enforcement requested they put up the posters and that they “absolutely adhere to all federal, state and city laws and regulations when it comes to information we request from tenants.”
This story was updated to include Zara’s response to the lawsuit and Darius Pereira as a representative for the seller.