Dozen deals spell big week for Manhattan investment sales

Middle of market transactions totaled $307M last week

Clockwise: 138 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx, 305 East 61st Street, 161 Lexington Avenue and 539 West 54th Street (Google Maps)
Clockwise: 138 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx, 305 East 61st Street, 161 Lexington Avenue and 539 West 54th Street (Google Maps)

The middle of the city’s investment sales market rebounded with a spate of deals in Manhattan to total $307 million after a quiet week to begin 2022.

Notable sales include an Upper East Side condo conversion already on its third owner, the liquidation of an all-girls residence in Hell’s Kitchen and a family bakery that got some dough in the Bronx. Also, Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities sold in Soho and a former beaux-arts mansion changed hands on the Upper East Side.

Manhattan led the submarket with seven deals, while the Bronx had three and Brooklyn and Queens two apiece. Here are the details of all sales between $10 million and $40 million recorded in the third week of January.

1. Zaro’s Family Bakery made some serious bread last week, selling the ground lease at 138 Bruckner Boulevard and 107 St Ann’s Avenue in Mott Haven, the Bronx, for $35 million. Montgomery Street Properties bought the 39,300-square-foot manufacturing building and an adjacent 15,600-square-foot gas station, respectively.

2. An affiliate of Coral Realty bought a 65,000-square-foot, 14-unit condo project at 305 East 61st Street ​in Lenox Hill for $35 million. Jason Carter of Carter Management Corp. was the seller, which had bought the property out of bankruptcy for $51 million in March 2020. Mitchell Marks originally led the condo conversion.

3. An affiliate of the Pinnacle Group sold 237 condo units at the MeadowWood at Gateway, a 19-building housing complex and former Mitchell-Lama development Fairfield Towers, in East New York, Brooklyn, for $30.5 million. The buyers were limited liability companies MeadowWood Towers and MeadowWood Towers II. Pinnacle Group bought 318 units in 2015 for $53 million.

4. Slate Property Group bought a 52,000-square-foot, 117-room hotel building at 161 Lexington Avenue in Kips Bay for $29.9 million. The seller was Apple Core Hotels. The building, which has been closed for two years, is slated to become transitional housing for the homeless.

5. The Kimmel family sold a 50 percent stake in a 95,600-square-foot condop building at 520 West 23rd Street in West Chelsea for $26.75 million. Two limited liability companies were the buyers.

6. Excel Development Group bought a 12,500-square-foot residential building at 539 West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen for $25 million. Catholic Charities of New York sold the property, an all-girls residence known as Centro Maria Residence, to pay legal claims made by sexual abuse victims, the City reported.

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7. FG Residential bought a 20,000-square-foot rental building at 9 East 68th Street, formerly the beaux-arts Bliss mansion, in Lenox Hill for $24.5M. The seller was Ursula Kloibal.

8. Joel Leifer and Cheskel Berkowitz bought a 16,500-square-foot event venue at 727 Throgs Neck Expressway in Throgs Neck, the Bronx, for $19.75 million. The Benjamin Companies sold the property.

9. Xiang Yang Xia of Golden Sparkling Supermarket bought the store’s location, a 24,300-square-foot grocery at 86-18 Broadway in Elmhurst, Queens, for $19 million. The seller was Kam Lun Food Products.

10. Knickpoint Ventures sold two self-storage buildings spanning a combined 45,900 square feet at 1112 Brook Avenue in Morrisania and 1045 Webster Avenue in Concourse, the Bronx, for $15.35 million. Extra Space Storage, which operates both buildings, was the buyer.

11. Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities sold a 9,700-square-foot, mixed-use building at 496 Broadway in Soho for $12.9 million. A representative of Hirshmark Capital, which owns the debt on the building, signed for the buyer, a shell company.

12. Ramiel Ben-Yehuda and Isaac Abraham’s Witnick Real Estate Partners bought a 16,200-square-foot rental building with 25 units at 443 East 88th Street in Yorkville for $12 million. The Lemle family was the seller.

13. Hebrew day school YDE bought a 27,200-square-foot parcel at 2316 Coney Island Avenue in Homecrest, Brooklyn, for $11.35 million. Hotelier Mahesh Ratanji was the seller.

14. Sunlight Development bought a 34,600-square-foot, mixed-use building with 25 units at 144-69 Barclay Avenue in Murray Hill, Queens, for $10.2 million. Lisa Lam of RLCH, Inc., which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2020, signed as the seller.