Rockrose buys Brooklyn Heights campus for $160M

Rockrose affiliate picked up campus at 180 Remsen Street

Rockrose Development CEO Henry Elghanayan, St. Francis College's Tim Cecere and 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn
Rockrose Development CEO Henry Elghanayan, St. Francis College's Tim Cecere and 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn (Rockrose Development, St. Francis College. Google Maps)

St. Francis College has graduated from its Brooklyn Heights campus.

The private institution sold its campus at 180 Remsen Street for $160 million, public records show. A release from the college on the sale announced the buyer as an affiliate of Rockrose Development, led by Henry and Justin Elghanayan.

The five-building campus is on Remsen and Joralemon streets, between Clinton and Court streets, and served as the long-time home for the school. The college chose to relocate after six decades to a site in Downtown Brooklyn, freeing up the campus.

There is about 500,000 square feet of as-of-right buildable space on the site, according to marketing materials from Cushman & Wakefield, bringing the deal ​​to $320 per square foot. 

The site is also eligible for an inclusionary housing bonus of about 100,000 square feet, which would bring down the per-square-foot-price..

It’s unclear what Rockrose plans for the site, which is notably near new condo developments such as Hudson Companies’ One Clinton and the Symon at 76 Schermerhorn, developed by Lonicera Partners, Orange Management and The Davis Companies. Rockrose could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Sources previously said that Alexico, Izak Senbahar’s firm best known for developing the “Jenga Tower” at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca, was in contract to purchase the site for $200 million. Alexico could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dan O’Brien, who led the Cushman team that brokered the sale, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

St. Francis left its Brooklyn Heights campus last fall, relocating to Tishman Speyer’s redevelopment of the former Macy’s building on Livingston Street dubbed “The Wheeler.” The college is anticipating an explosive growth in enrollment in the coming years.

The school was “better served in a more modern, custom-built facility,” acting president, Tim Cecere, said in a statement on the move. 

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