Another quarter, another massive Jehovah’s Witnesses deal in Brooklyn.
The religious organization’s $202.5 million sale of 21 Clark Street topped the list of Brooklyn’s biggest deals in the fourth quarter, following its $135 million sale of 90 Sands Street which topped the list of biggest deals in the third quarter. Unlike last quarter, however, this was the only Jehovah’s Witnesses deal that appeared on the list, and experts anticipate that the church’s selloffs will wind down in 2018, as most of its properties have already been sold at this point.
The top 10 list this quarter was split between two office properties, two industrial properties, two development plots, one self-storage site, one residential property, one retail site and one general site (the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ property), according to data from Real Capital Analytics. The overall value of the deals was about $691.8 million, ranking it above the second quarter’s $468.3 million but below the third quarter’s $831.5 million and the first quarter’s roughly $1 billion.
Other notable deals in the fourth quarter included CIM Group’s purchase of 16 Court Street, the tallest office building in Brooklyn, and Cleveland-based Stark Enterprises’ $92 million purchase of 30 Flatbush Avenue.
The full list of Brooklyn’s top 10 sales is as follows:
1. 21 Clark Street, $202.5 million
Buyer: Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors
Seller: Jehovah’s Witnesses
The religious group sold their Brooklyn Heights apartment building at 21 Clark Street to the Florida-based private equity firm Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors in November for about $200 million. Kayne plans to turn the property into luxury housing for seniors. The company received a $106.7 million loan for the project from Wells Fargo. The sale of the building comes amidst the Witnesses’ move from Brooklyn to Warwick, New York.
2. 16 Court Street, approximately $171 million
Buyer: CIM Group
Seller: SL Green Realty
Brokerage: CBRE
CIM Group closed on its purchase of SL Green Realty’s Downtown Brooklyn office tower in October for about $171 million. At 38 stories, the property is the tallest office building in Brooklyn and spans 317,600 square feet, with tenants including Walgreens, the New York City College of Technology and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
3. 30 Flatbush Avenue, approximately $92 million
Buyer: Stark Enterprises, Sun Equity Partners
Seller: Angelo, Gordon & Co.; Capstone Equities
Brokerage: JLL
Stark Enterprises, a Cleveland-based company, came in at No. 3 on the list with its first-ever purchase in the New York market at 30 Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. The commercial office building, which is net leased to Con Edison, spans 250,000 square feet and stands seven stories tall. At the time of the sale, Stark and its partner Sun Equity said they were looking into using the space for affordable housing.
4. 1084 Rockaway Avenue, $53 million
Buyer: Prime Group Storage
Seller: Madison Development
Prime Group Storage bought this Canarsie site at 1084 Rockaway Avenue for $53 million in October. It spans 82,862 square feet, and Madison Development managing partner Adam Gordon previously told The Real Deal that the company was not looking to sell, but they couldn’t pass up the offer. Madison bought the vacant property in 2014 for $7 million, penciling out to a $45 million profit.
5. 5112 2nd Avenue, $47 million
Buyer: ASB Real Estate Investments, 60 Guilders
Seller: Benjamin Rusi
ASB and 60 Guilders bought this Sunset Park warehouse for $47 million in October. The purchase includes a 21,000 square foot parking lot, and most of the property is leased to the New York Board of Elections, which uses it as storage space.
6. 962-972 Franklin Avenue, approximately $33 million
Buyer: Continuum Company
Seller: Zev Golombeck
Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company bought this development site in Crown Heights for about $33 million as part of a 1 million-square-foot residential project they are planning for the neighborhood with Lincoln Equities. The assemblage, which also includes 120-136 Montgomery Street, spans 120,000 square feet, and the project is expected to cost more than $500 million. The companies plan to make 50 percent of the units affordable in exchange for a rezoning that will allow for greater density.
7. 545 Sackett Street, approximately $26.5 million
Buyer: Domain Companies
Seller: Glenn Schattner
Brokerage: TerraCRG
Domain Companies closed on this Gowanus warehouse property in December in an effort to get a head start on the expected rezoning of the neighborhood. The site is currently home to a 42,000-square-foot vacant building and is zoned for up to 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Domain is counting on the pending rezoning to allow it to build a larger mixed-use project on the site with commercial space and residential space split between market-rate and affordable apartments. The site used to be storage facility for Brooklyn Union Gas Company and has contaminated soil that requires environmental remediation.
8. 159 Broadway, approximately $26.2 million
Buyer: WB Bridge Hotel LLC
Seller: 159 Development Group LLC
WB Bridge Hotel purchased this Williamsburg development site in December for about $26.2 million. The LLC plans to turn it into a hotel.
9. 409-421 14th Street, approximately $20.8 million
Buyer: Akelius Real Estate Management
Seller: Deepak Raj
Brokerage: Greysteel
The U.S. arm of Akelius, a giant Swedish real estate company, purchased 409-421 14th Street in Park Slope in December for just under $21 million. The seven contiguous buildings have 44 units overall. Akelius made the purchase in conjunction with the $14.7 million purchase of 181-182 Propsect Park West, two contiguous buildings that contain 34 units. The properties contain rent-stabilized and free-market apartments.
10. 60 North 6th Street, approximately $19.8 million
Buyer: Williamsburg Meridian N 6th LLC
Seller: 60 N 6th Street LLC
Williamsburg Meridian purchased this retail site in December for just under $20 million. The building was constructed in 1920 and spans 10,000 feet across two floors.