Catsimatidis picks up BK building for $69M

John Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Group picked up a recently developed Brooklyn apartment building by the Barclays Center in Prospect Heights for $69.2 million.

Robert Wolf’s Read Property Group is the seller of the eight-story, 86-unit building at 670 Pacific Street.

Catsimatidis told The Real Deal he bought the property in a 1031 exchange with proceeds from the sale of the $65.2 million sale of the former Gristedes corporate headquarters on the West Side of Manhattan, which closed in late September.

“I think we paid a little bit more than I really wanted to, but we had the ability to do that because of the 1031,” he said. “This reinforces our love for Brooklyn and our trust in the borough.”

Wolf’s Read Property partnered with the site’s owner for an undisclosed sum in 2013 to develop the building, which has a 90-spot parking garage leased to a parking operator for 15 years.

Yosef Katz and Yisroel Pershin

“Every time I showed the building there’s lines [for the parking], especially during games,” said GFI Realty’s Yisroel Pershin, who acted as the lead broker representing the buyer and the seller in the deal alongside colleagues Yosef Katz and Eli Shilian.

Pershin added that the purchase price on the rental portion of the building worked out to roughly $1,100 per rentable square foot

“[Catsimatidis] loved the quality of construction and the location – it’s adjacent to the Barclays Center – and the opportunity to grow his sizable portfolio in the neighborhood,” he said.

Catsimatidis, whose Red Apple Group is the largest private company in New York with a real estate business, is planning to build a 425-unit, mixed-use project in Coney Island.

Wolf’s Read Property, meanwhile, is developing a piece of the Rheingold Brewery megaproject in Buswhick with Joseph Tabak’s Princeton Holdings that the developers held on to.

Across from Catsimatidis’ new building, the future of the Pacific Park megaproject is somewhat uncertain after Forest City New York sold the bulk of its stake in the development to partner Greenland USA amid the departure of longtime CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin.

Brookfield Asset Management is reportedly in talks to buy Forest City Realty Trust.