Alma Realty sells in Midtown, buys in Washington Heights to top midsized i-sales

Rental apartments continued to drive most of the middle-market activity on New York City’s otherwise slow investment sales scene last week, but one dealmaker was particularly active.

Brooklyn and Queens landlord Efstathios “Steve” Valiotis’ Alma Realty was the buyer behind the week’s largest mid-market transaction and the seller on the week’s second-largest.

In total, five sales of commercial properties valued between $10 million and $40 million hit city records last week. Three of them involved apartment buildings with ground-floor retail space. Manhattan had three deals and Brooklyn had the remaining two.

Below is more information on each sale, ranked by dollar amount:

1. Alma Realty paid $20.1 million for a pair of mixed-use buildings at 3850 and 3900 Broadway, three blocks apart in Washington Heights. The six-story buildings combine for 82 units across 96,000 square feet. Seller Barberry Rose Management paid $27.8 million for the two buildings in 2014, records show. George Sakellaris, founder and CEO of renewable energy corporation Ameresco and an investor in Alma Realty, signed for the buyer.

2. Meanwhile, a different entity tied to Alma sold a trio of mixed-use buildings across the street from the Port Authority at 321, 323 and 325 West 42nd Street in Midtown to Amir Shriki’s Aya Acquisitions for $20 million. The five-story properties combine for 39 units across 27,000 square feet. Ten of those units are rent-stabilized. 

   JLL’s Bob Knakal and Jonathan Hageman brokered the sale of the buildings, which were asking $24 million. A listing notes that two of the buildings’ three ground-floor retail units are leased to restaurants while the third is vacant. The buildings last traded in 1999 for an undisclosed amount.

3. The Republic of Serbia paid $15 million for a 164-year-old church at 124 East 35th Street in Murray Hill. The sellers were three entities tied to the Swedenborgian church, a Protestant denomination that had occupied the 20,000-square-foot building since 1859, according to Curbed. 

4. Landlord Chaskel Landau bought a mixed-use building at 357 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights for $11.6 million from embattled developer RedSky Capital. The three-story property has five residential units across 17,500 square feet and last sold in 2013 for $8.9 million.

5. Great Neck-based Monarch Realty Holdings bought a four-story office building with ground-floor retail at 340 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn for $11.3 million. The seller was several other Great Neck-based LLCs, including some tied to investor Isaac Saidmehr. The 17,000-square-foot building was last sold in 2014 for $8.3 million.