Abby Modell buys West Village, Midwood apartments for $68M

Defunct retail chain’s namesake family topped last week’s mid-market deals as investors continue flocking to Midwood

Abby Modell with 1704 Ocean Avenue (Getty, Street Easy)
Abby Modell with 1704 Ocean Avenue (Getty, Street Easy)

Modell’s Sporting Goods may have all but faded from New York City, but its namesake family isn’t going anywhere.

A pair of limited liability companies tied to Abby Modell, sister-in-law of Mitchell Modell, the defunct retail chain’s former CEO, purchased a 64-unit apartment building at 1704 Ocean Avenue in Midwood, Brooklyn, for $37.1 million and a 33-unit apartment building at 35 Bedford Street in the West Village for $31 million.

Yerachmael Jacobson and Marc Jacobowitz of Bluejay Management sold the Midwood building. Michael Sherman of Baseline Real Estate Advisors and Jacob Stavsky of SP Capital Group represented buyer and seller, respectively.

The West Village building was sold by Benchmark Real Estate, which bought the property for $21 million in 2019. BEB Capital advised Modell on both deals. Mitchell Modell and BEB previously came together in 2019 to buy an office building in the Garment District.

Those buildings were two of seven commercial properties that traded for between $10 million and $40 million in deals recorded in New York City last week. Manhattan had three deals, while Brooklyn and Queens each had two. Together, the seven sales totaled $135.9 million.

Also in Midwood, Moshe Greenzweig purchased a 96-unit apartment building spanning 114,000 square feet at 3101 Aurelia Court for $19.3 million. Livingston Gardens Inc. sold the property as part of a $42 million portofolio sale that also included 550 East 21st Street, 850 East 17th Street and 855 East 19th Street.

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Denali Management Inc. purchased a 64,500-square-foot building with 86 residential units at 86-22 Dongan Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens, for $14.5 million from the Bokhour family. Elyas Bokhour also sold an apartment building in Long Island City in February for $15.5 million.

Hiuian Cheng, through a limited liability company, purchased a 27,600-square-foot building with mostly retail space at 47 Broadway in the Financial District for $12.5 million from the Riese Organization, a restaurant operator that has sold other buildings since the onset of the pandemic.

Christopher Petsanas’ Rasell Realty Corp sold a 13,000-square-foot development site at 45-02 Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, Queens, for $11 million. The buyer was a limited liability company.

An affiliate of MD Squared Property bought a 12,400-square-foot building with mostly retail space at 206 Spring Street in Soho for $10.5 million from an affiliate of Corigin Real Estate. Adam Savell signed for the seller. Michael Mintz signed for the buyer.

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