Thor Equities Sells Boerum Hill Properties For $25M

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities unloaded a residential and retail portfolio next to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

An unknown buyer paid $25 million for nine adjacent townhomes at 525-541 Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill, a source said. That’s just $2 million more than Sitt paid a decade ago for the portfolio of 24 rental units and 32,000 square feet of retail space, known as Atlantic Gardens.

Thor purchased the properties in 2013 for $23 million from Bennat Berger of BCB and Arik Lifshitz of DSA Management, who had paid $10.93 million two years earlier. The area has seen a recent rise in retail rents in the shadow of the Barclays Center, which opened in 2012.

These days, the Boerum Hill section of Atlantic Avenue is bustling with independently-owned restaurants, clothing and home stores. Atlantic Gardens is fully leased to a variety of tenants, including crepe cafe Choco Mania, Vietnamese sandwich shop Banhmigos, Midtown Florist and beer bar Hops Hill. A Thor spokesperson declined to disclose the rents.

Average asking rents in most of the borough are still below pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent report by the Real Estate Board of New York. Data showed rents in most Brooklyn retail corridors are 15 to 30 percent below their peaks, even in prime neighborhoods like Park Slope and Cobble Hill.

The supply of larger spaces is tightening in the borough and the food & beverage and fashion sectors continue to be strong, according to REBNY.