Jonas Equities picks up a pair of Brooklyn apartment buildings for $46M

Brooklyn multifamily investor Jonas Equities picked up a pair of apartment buildings in Sheepshead Bay and Kensington for $46 million.

The Kensington-based company bought the two six-story elevator buildings with a combined 149 units from longtime owners Steven Breitman and Susan Schoenfeld, the deal’s broker told The Real Deal.

“They’re basically turn-key, violation free, exceptionally well-managed buildings with clean paperwork,” said John Brennan of Marcus & Millichap’s Brooklyn office, who had the exclusive to market the properties with his colleague Victor Holguin.

John Brennan and Victor Holguin of of Marcus & Millichap

The larger of the two buildings, 1775 East 18th Street in Sheepshead Bay, traded for $28 million. The nearly 98,000-square-foot building has 96 units, 73 of which are rent-stabilized. One unit is rent-controlled, and the remaining 22 are free-market.

The building at 140 Ocean Parkway in Kensington, which spans about 63,000 square feet, sold for $18 million. The building has 53 apartments: 41 rent-stabilized units and 13 free-market units.

Representatives for Jonas Equities and the sellers could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brennan said a number of the apartments across the two buildings have preferential rents — or rents currently set below the maximum price a landlord can legally charge — which can be increased when a landlord brings in a higher-paying tenant.

He added that the property attracted multiple bidders, and Jonas Equities ended up paying $1 million above the properties’ $45 million asking price.

Jonas Equities in July paid $12.8 million to buy a 66-unit apartment building in Flatbush

Last year, a tenant sued an affiliate of Jonas Equities in Brooklyn federal court, claiming the company tried to illegally evict her family. At the time, Jonas Equities vice president Larry Bernstein called the lawsuit frivolous.

The tenant dismissed her case against the company this past June.