CEO, V Global Holdings
March 04, 2016 05:15PM
By Alistair Gardiner
Is any home worth $85 million? That’s debatable, but this townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street, which is listed for that amount, certainly features every lavish detail you can possibly imagine (Hermès leather walls anyone?) –plus a whole lot more. Watch our video for an inside look at the fourth most expensive listing in the city.
On the 74th floor of the Time Warner Center, Condominium 74B was purchased in 2010 for $15.65 million by a secretive entity called 25CC ST74B L.L.C. It traces to the family of Vitaly Malkin, a former Russian senator and banker who was barred from entering Canada because of suspected connections to organized crime.
Last fall, another shell company bought a condo down the hall for $21.4 million from a Greek businessman named Dimitrios Contominas, who was arrested a year ago as part of a corruption sweep in Greece.
A few floors down are three condos owned by another shell company, Columbus Skyline L.L.C., which belongs to the family of a Chinese businessman and contractor named Wang Wenliang. His construction company was found housing workers in New Jersey in hazardous, unsanitary conditions.
Behind the dark glass towers of the Time Warner Center looming over Central Park, a majority of owners have taken steps to keep their identities hidden, registering condos in trusts, limited liability companies or other entities that shield their names. By piercing the secrecy of more than 200 shell companies, The New York Times documented a decade of ownership in this iconic Manhattan way station for global money transforming the city’s real estate market.
Many of the owners represent a cross-section of American wealth: chief executives and celebrities, doctors and lawyers, technology entrepreneurs and Wall Street traders.
But The Times also found a growing proportion of wealthy foreigners, at least 16 of whom have been the subject of government inquiries around the world, either personally or as heads of companies. The cases range from housing and environmental violations to financial fraud. Four owners have been arrested, and another four have been the subject of fines or penalties for illegal activities.
The foreign owners have included government officials and close associates of officials from Russia, Colombia, Malaysia, China, Kazakhstan andMexico.
They have been able to make these multimillion-dollar purchases with few questions asked because of United States laws that foster the movement of largely untraceable money through shell companies.
Vast sums are flowing unchecked around the world as never before — whether motivated by corruption, tax avoidance or investment strategy, and enabled by an ever-more-borderless economy and a proliferation of ways to move and hide assets.
Alighting in places like London, Singapore and other financial centers, this flood of capital has created colonies of the foreign super-rich, with the attendant resentments and controversies about class inequality made tangible in the glass and steel towers reordering urban landscapes.
Where it made landfall in New York, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, was the Time Warner Center. More than a decade on, even as a row of sky-piercing palaces rises on the southern rim of Central Park, the Time Warner Center remains the New York archetype of the global phenomenon, reflecting intertwined trends — the increasing sums of foreign money in high-end real estate and the growing use of shell companies.
About $8 billion is spent each year for New York City residences that cost more than $5 million each, more than triple the amount of a decade ago, according to the website PropertyShark. Just over half of those sales last year were to shell companies.
Article republished from NY Times – Feb 7, 2015 – Louise Story and Stephanie Saul.
NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Delshah Capital Limited, a full-service commercial real estate investment and property management company, today announced the successful public tender of over $102 million of corporate bonds (400 mm NiS), which will be traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.
The offering was oversubscribed by more than 50% and included some of Israel’s most prominent institutional investors such as Harel Insurance, Migdalia Insurance, Meitav Pension, IBI mutual funds, Union Bank, Excellence and Menora mutual funds as well a number of major hedge funds.
The offering was supported by Delshah’s existing portfolio,with a gross asset value of over $500 million USD with a leverage rate of below of 40%, pre offering. The assets are all located in New York City, and contain prominent locations in NYC’s meatpacking district, Soho, the West Village and Herald Square. The proceeds will be used partially for investments into the existing portfolio and to fund Delshah’s pipeline of value add New York real estate investments.
“We are thrilled with the incredibly successful bond offering which came as a result of the hard work put in by our deal team” noted Michael Shah, Principal of Delshah Capital. “Our investment and asset management expertise, as well as our portfolio of cash flowing assets backed by credit tenants in prime NYC locations, was very well received by the market. It was clear during the road show that investors were getting the story behind the Company and its strategy. The Company intends to put in place a comprehensive investor relations program to keep our new investors informed about the Company’s progress. This offering puts in place a company structure which will allow Delshah to continue to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities for many years to come.”
“This successful offering is a major step for Delshah,” said Jeff Bogino, Managing Partner of Delshah Capital. “Through the public bond tender we have not only further institutionalized our platform, but have expanded our stable of capital partners to include the largest and most prominent Israeli institutional investors. We look forward to expanding those relationships over the coming years.”
Delshah was advised on the offering by the Israeli advisory firm InFin, led by Yehonatan Cohen and Yossi Levi, and the bonds were distributed by Clal Finance Underwriting. “The investors were attracted to four main themes in the Delshah offering: 1) Delshah’s consolidated 100% ownership of all of the subsidiaries, 2) the asset locations in premiere NYC neighborhoods, 3) the low existing leverage and 4) stable cash flow and in house management. Infin was able to communicate these themes to the Israeli marketplace for the Company and secure very attractive rates.” said Yehonatan Cohen. Infin also was the lead advisor for the Related Companies Israeli issuance, and is building a roster of sophisticated US real estate companies for cross border capital advisory. Delshah was represented by Goldfarb Seligman & Co in Israel, and by Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP in the U.S., and auditing services were provided by Deloitte Israel.
About Delshah Capital: Delshah Capital is a full-service, vertically integrated commercial real estate investment firm specializing in acquiring, developing and managing multi-family, retail and office properties throughout New York City. Founded in 2006 by Michael Shah, Delshah is comprised of over 40 professionals within its commercial real estate investment and property management groups. The firm utilizes a fundamental, value-driven approach to its investments and has expertise in identifying, financing, structuring and managing real estate investments on behalf of institutional clients and for its principal account. Delshah owns a portfolio of more than 2 million square feet valued in excess of $500 million. For more information, please visit www.delshah.com.
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Photo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160112/321682
In 2015, Shattering Records in New York City Real Estate
By VIVIAN MARINO DEC. 24, 2015 From New York Times
In the realm of New York City real estate, what goes up just keeps going up, and up.
This past year prices again punctured records, with the official closing of a $100.47 million penthouse at the pinnacle of Extell Development’s One57, the vitreous Midtown skyscraper and popular abode for billionaires worldwide seeking to park their cash.
Other sales in the Central Park-facing condominium, at 157 West 57th Street, flirted with the nine-digit mark. And across Manhattan, records were set for co-ops and extravagant prices paid for other condos and townhouses. Brooklyn, which is becoming ever more desirable (and dear) as a home address, also posted a record for the most expensive sale for a single residence, in Cobble Hill.
“We shattered just about every record that pre-existed,” said Shaun Osher, the chief executive of the brokerage firm Core. “It was the year of the big sale.”
A penthouse on the top two floors of the blue-glass condominium at 157 West 57th Street recently sold to an unidentified buyer for a record price.Big Ticket: $100.4 Million Sale at One57JAN. 23, 2015
The limestone 834 Fifth Avenue is considered a Candela masterpiece.Big Ticket: $77,500,000, a Record for Co-opsAPRIL 3, 2015
Big Ticket: $15.5 Million, a Record for Brooklyn Real EstateJUNE 19, 2015
A penthouse in the south tower of Time Warner Center has been sold.Big Ticket: $50,917,500 Penthouse Sets a Time Warner RecordJULY 31, 2015
Paul McCartney performing in London this month.Big Ticket: Paul McCartney’s $15.5 Million Central Park ViewMAY 29, 2015
Big Ticket: Penthouse Owned by Joan Rivers Sold for $28 MillionJULY 17, 2015
But the record books are almost certain to be rewritten in the months ahead as new “billionaire bunkers” are added to the city’s ever-evolving skyline, like 220 Central Park South, 432 and 520 Park, and 56 Leonard, to name just a few.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick sold their brick townhouse, second from left, at 20 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village for $18.25 million. They took a bit of a bath, having paid nearly $19 million for it in 2011. Credit From left: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times; Amy Lombard for The New York Times.
The current record price will be surpassed — make that doubled — when another megadeal is filed with the city in the next couple of years. The hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, whose net worth totals $7 billion by Forbes’s estimate, entered into a contract in late summer to buy a triplex at 220 Central Park South for around $200 million, according to sources familiar with the sale who, like others in this article, requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize a current or future deal. This purchase would not only be the city’s largest sale of a single residence, but also the country’s, usurping the $147 million sale of an 18-acre East Hampton, N.Y., estate in 2014, according to Jonathan J. Miller, who runs the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. He wonders, though, how long this upward trajectory will endure: “Developers and those observing the market are asking how many $10 million-and-up buyers are really out there.”
So far, roughly half the 118 or so apartments are under contract at 220 Central Park South, the 65-story limestone-clad building designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and at the ninth floor of construction, according to Steven Roth, the chief executive of Vornado Realty Trust, the developer. Fourteen of those units went for $50 million or more, he said in a recent earnings conference call.
Real estate brokers and market observers say that at least for the next few years, more of these astronomical sale prices will surface as signed contracts in the city’s nascent developments finally close. (Most of the units at 56 Leonard, for instance, are spoken for, said Kelly Kennedy Mack, the president of the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, adding that full-floor units are listed for above $20 million, and the most expensive penthouse is around $50 million.) There are unsold units, too, at completed developments like One57 and those nearing completion, like the Greenwich Lane in Greenwich Village. And then there are the resales.
“With the inventory out there, the extraordinary amount of wealth, and the continued demand for New York real estate, we will continue to see robust sales in the superluxury market,” said Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of the Corcoran Group. Corcoran Sunshine Marketing is handling sales for 220 Central Park South.
Daniel Levy, the chief executive of CityRealty, which tracks condo and co-op sales, shares this opinion: “There seems to be plenty of demand for all these buildings,” he said. “Next year the story will be 432 Park and 56 Leonard; the following years will be 220 Central Park South and 520 Park.”
For 2015, the story, of course, was the Christian de Portzamparc-designed One57, where eight of the 20 biggest big-ticket sales took place — that is, those that were signed, sealed and officially recorded with the city.
All the year’s top 20 sales were for more than $30 million, and the top 10 for above $45 million. They included three co-ops, two townhouses, one condop and several other luxury condos, among them, two units at 15 Central Park West, which was designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects and where another apartment had held the record until this year for the city’s most expensive residence, at $88 million. That was the full-floor penthouse the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought in 2012, through a trust benefiting his daughter, from Sanford I. Weill, the former Citigroup chairman.
One57
The city’s record $100.47 million sale (and the seventh priciest in the nation, according to Mr. Miller) was for the 89th and 90th floors of the brash blue tower, a.k.a. unit No. 90, a 10,923-square-foot aerie with a reception gallery and grand salon. Extell initially marketed the duplex for $98.5 million, then raised the price to $115 million, according to the state attorney general’s office. Only a handful of people know the identity of its new owner, who, like most others buying these ultraluxury digs, hid under the mantle of a limited liability company. The buyer actually made the purchase in late December 2014, but it didn’t pop up in city records until mid-January.
Joan Rivers’s ornate escape from hilarity at 1 East 62nd Street changed hands for serious money, $28 million. The 11-room triplex, with four bedrooms, four and a half baths and five wood-burning fireplaces, encompasses around 5,100 square feet. Credit From left: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times; Ruth Fremson/The New York Times.
While that deal was covert, the buyer of the city’s second most expensive residence (and No. 12 nationally), at $91.54 million, was more forthcoming. The hedge fund mogul William A. Ackman revealed his purchase of a six-bedroom on the 75th and 76th floors months before it officially closed in April. The apartment, known as the Winter Garden, is distinctive for, among other things, its 2,500-square-foot curved-glass atrium that opens to the sky.
In February, Guoqing Chen, a founder along with his brother, Chen Feng, of Hainan Airlines, part of the HNA Group, one of China’s largest private airline companies, paid $47.37 million for an apartment taking up the entire 86th floor. Two months later, at nearly the identical price, another full-floor apartment, on the 88th floor, was bought through a limited liability company associated with HNA’s New York subsidiary. Could this one be for Chen Feng?
Many of the buyers in the building are foreigners, particularly from China. “They are really looking to park money here because of the uncertainties of their governments,” Dorothy Herman, the chief executive of Douglas Elliman Real Estate said of this building and others like it.
Among the other big closed sales at One57: Unit No. 85 for $55.56 million and No. 77, $47.78 million.
Other Condos
Most of the top sales this year happened in condominiums, and several involved recognizable names.
The Related Companies’ Time Warner Center, one of the priciest buildings of the early 2000s and a favorite of Russian buyers, registered a record of its own. In late July, the Russian financier Andrey Vavilov sold his penthouse on the full 78th floor of the south tower, at 25 Columbus Circle, for $50.92 million. Mr. Vavilov served as deputy finance minister during the presidency of Boris N. Yeltsin and made a fortune when his oil company was taken over by a state-controlled enterprise in 2003. According to Mr. Levy of CityRealty, the sale of his six-bedroom apartment surpassed the building’s previous highest price, $37.5 million in 2009 — for the same unit.
Nearby, at Zeckendorf Development’s 202-unit 15 Central Park West, apartments sold for $45 million and $35 million, both around the same time in the fall. Then there was the $33 million sale in January of a penthouse at 1 Central Park West, a.k.a. the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
Speaking of Trump, the real estate developer and presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump sold one of his two investment penthouses at Trump Park Avenue, at 502 Park Avenue, last summer for $21.38 million to a founder of the supermarket chain Fresh Market, Ray D. Berry.
Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, bought a duplex in glass-faced 1045 Fifth Avenue for $15.5 million. Credit From left: Linda Jaquez for The New York Times; Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press
In other celebrity sales, the palatial triplex where the comic Joan Rivers lived for more than a quarter of a century until her death last year at age 81, was sold by her estate in July for $28 million. The buyer of the apartment, at 1 East 62nd Street, was said to be Middle Eastern royalty.
Also, Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star, sold his penthouse at the New Museum Building, at 158 Mercer Street, a.k.a. 583 Broadway, for $34 million.
And Stephen Griggs, whose family business had owned the British footwear company behind the Dr. Martens brand of boots, paid $17.26 million for an apartment at 35XV, Alchemy Properties’ glass-and-stone high-rise at 35 West 15th Street.
The Carlton House condop at 21 East 61st Street, meanwhile, had a $52 million penthouse sale.
Co-ops
Two of the year’s top five sales were co-op apartments, including one that shattered the city’s record for co-ops: the $77.5 million purchase of a duplex on the 11th and 12th floors of 834 Fifth Avenue, designed by Rosario Candela.
The unit was sold in early spring by Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, to the Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik. The previous co-op record was set in 2014, when the hedge fund manager Israel Englander paid $71.28 million for a duplex at another Candela building, 740 Park Avenue.
The same week the new record-holder surfaced in late March so, too, did the official closing of the year’s second most expensive co-op at $67.5 million: a full-floor apartment on the 18th floor of the Sherry-Netherland, at 781 Fifth Avenue. The seller was Gilbert Haroche, a founder of Liberty Travel. And in early May, a triplex at 775 Park Avenue sold for $35.14 million; the buyers were Elizabeth Right, the daughter of Stephen A. Schwarzman, a founder of the Blackstone Group, and her husband, Andrew Right.
There were other boldface deals in co-ops. This past spring, Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, bought a duplex at 1045 Fifth Avenue for $15.5 million.
220 Central Park South, with cranes, is under construction. A triplex at the fast-selling building reportedly is in contract for $200 million. Credit Edward Caruso for The New York Times
Just down the street and a few months later, Jeff T. Blau, the chief executive of the Related Companies, sold his apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, yet another Candela building, for $30 million. And across the park, the architect Cesar Pelli, known for the design of some of the world’s tallest buildings, bought a lower-floor apartment at the San Remo, at 145 Central Park West, for $17.5 million.
Two other big sales took place on Central Park West. T-Mobile’s chief executive, John J. Legere, paid $18 million in October for a duplex penthouse once occupied by William Randolph Hearst, at 91 Central Park West. And the estate of Lauren Bacall sold for $21 million the apartment at the Dakota, at 1 West 72nd Street, that the legendary actress called home for more than half a century until her death last year at age 89. Ronald N. Beck, a hedge fund manager, and his wife, Cynthia Lewis Beck, were the buyers.
Townhouses
The year’s most expensive townhouse, at 125-127 East 70th Street, sold for $37 million. (The record is still the 2006 sale of the Harkness Mansion at 4 East 75th Street, for $53 million.)
But most of the buzz seemed to center over the $18.25 million sale of a townhouse owned by Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. The famous couple took a loss on the 25-foot-wide Greek Revival-style townhouse, at 20 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village, for which they paid nearly $19 million in 2011, and likely spent more on upgrades. A nearby house that they were once reportedly in contract to buy, at 16 East 10th Street, sold for a tidy profit, at $32 million. The developer David Amirian, and his business partner, Warren Hammerschlag, an orthopedic surgeon, had paid $11.2 million in 2012 for the house, which had been owned by Pen and Brush, a nonprofit group for female artists and writers.
Mr. Levy noted that some buyers see townhouses as relative bargains. “Generally speaking, we’re seeing price per foot substantially less than in new buildings, so certain people see them as a value proposition given the size,” he said.
In another notable sale, a Facebook founder (no, not that one) was the likely buyer of a $22.3 million four-story Greenwich Village townhouse with a separate rear studio, at 157 West 12th Street. Chris Hughes, one of the five founders and a roommate at Harvard of Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive, bought the property, according to a source familiar with the private transaction who requested anonymity. The seller was Michael P. Stewart, a money manager.
Brooklyn
The borough broke a record for its most expensive residence with the $15.5 million sale of a nearly 27-foot-wide, three-story brick townhouse in a historic district of Cobble Hill. The photographer Jay Maisel bought the house, at 177 Pacific Street, after selling his previous home and studio — the gritty six-story former Germania Bank building at 190 Bowery in Manhattan — to Aby J. Rosen’s RFR Holding for $55 million.
Mr. Osher of Core predicted more record closing sales in Brooklyn’s townhouse market in 2016. “We’ll see a $20 million-plus sale,” he said. “Once the townhouse buyer realizes they can’t get what they want in Manhattan, they’ll be looking in Brooklyn.”
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Warren Buffet’s wise words handily sum up a dominant theme in New York’s residential market these days — which is to say, despite all the talk of glitzy new condos and penthouses with astronomical prices, developers, buyers and brokers are increasingly chasing value.
The phenomenon is playing out across all price points, and it applies to first-time homebuyers on the lowest end of the price spectrum to foreign investors seeking a “safe haven” for their money at the high end.
This month, The Real Deal dissected the market under $10 million, zeroing in on three key price brackets: $1 million to $3 million, $3 million to $5 million and $5 million to $10 million. What we found was that each of those markets is behaving very differently in this transitioning market.
Not surprisingly, properties between $1 million and $3 million are flying off the shelves. As prices rise across the board, this category is absorbing a growing number of buyers who are finding themselves priced out of more expensive apartments. And the majority of buyers in this range know that they need to act fast because there is a line of competing buyers who will grab the property if they don’t.
However, higher up on the ladder — in both the $3-million-to-$5-million range and the $5-million-to-$10-million market — sales have slowed as buyers wade through more choices than they’ve had in years and sellers overreach with asking prices.
“It’s just a tale of two markets,” said Noah Rosenblatt, founder of real estate analytics firm Urban Digs.
Compass agent James Cox put it this way: “We have more listings and more buyers than we did this time last year, but they’re looking for bargains and sellers are holding out for something better.”
No one is immune from price sensitivity, either.
“Even at $10 million, people are very aware of value and they will not overpay,” said Jeffrey Stockwell of Stribling & Associates. “Look, we live in uncertain times and people want to make smart decisions.”
Related Cos., in partnership with New York City pension funds, is ramping up its multifamily moves, with the $112.5 million purchase of a 20-building Bronx portfolio – the largest package to change hands in the borough this year, sources told The Real Deal.
The portfolio contains 737 apartments spread throughout the North, West and South Bronx. In a statement, a spokesperson for Related confirmed the portfolio buy and said the firm’s Related Fund Management arm and the pension funds plan to preserve the units in a long-term hold as workforce housing.
The buildings are largely low-rise walkups with rent-stabilized units. They are in a mix of working-class and middle-class neighborhoods such as Soundview, Wakefield, High Bridge and Fordham.
A group of private Brooklyn Heights-based investors known as Eastern Capital Partners acquired the properties in several transactions over the past five years, records show.
Addresses include 4002-4004 Carpenter Avenue, 1085-1095 Colgate Avenue, 2608 Creston Avenue and 1065 Jerome Avenue, among others.
Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis and Besen & Associates’ Amit Doshi and Ron Cohen each brokered portions of the deal. Jungreis, Doshi and Cohen declined to comment.
Last year, Related and the city pension funds to acquire 35 rental buildings from Stanley Wasserman’s SW Management for $270 million. Over the summer, the development giant behind the Hudson Yards megaproject scooped up a 10-building, Brooklyn-and-Queens package from Silvershore Properties and three formerly distressed buildings in Marine Park.
The Bronx is undergoing something of a residential renaissance, with more than 11.5 million square feet of residential real estate under development borough-wide, according to a TRD analysis in September.
Two of the other large Bronx portfolios of the year include A&E Real Estate’s purchase of a 441-unit complex in Riverdale for $89 million and an Asden Properties-led group’s acquisition of 612 apartments for $90 million.
– See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/12/24/related-makes-biggest-bronx-portfolio-deal-of-the-year/#sthash.conMXSoD.dpuf
Accountants weren’t the only ones cheering this year’s record number of tax returns.
This past Tuesday’s dreaded tax deadline actually marked a pleasant occasion for most filers. Of the 100 million or so returns processed through April 4, nearly 80% resulted in a refund averaging $2,792. The total sum paid out was about $5 billion, or 2.5%, higher than a year earlier.
That bodes well for the nation’s retailers in the months ahead since many households treat returns as a windfall to be spent, not saved. Even better, Uncle Sam has been a lot quicker to whip out his checkbook than in 2013. Had that not been the case, retail-sales figures for the past two months might have looked different.
Sales for March recorded their biggest month-over-month gain in a year and a half, according to a report Monday from the Commerce Department. That came despite the fact that Easter, which fell earlier last year, in March, isn’t until this Sunday.
“I do believe that [tax refunds] were fuel for the consumer in the month of March,” said Jack Kleinheinz, the National Retail Federation’s chief economist.
And, although the dollar amounts were smaller, the impact of accelerated returns probably did much to offset the impact of frigid weather in February. An initial estimate of retail sales was revised higher for that month. For the week ended Feb. 7, for example, cumulative tax returns were $12.5 billion, or a whopping 24%, higher than at the same point a year earlier. By the end of February, that gain had fallen to 8.8%, and by the end of March, the difference was just 2.6%.
Last year was an entirely different story. At the end of February 2013, refunds were 14.3% lower than at the same point in 2012. That was mainly the result of administrative delays caused by the “fiscal cliff” standoff in Washington. The effect on spending was exacerbated by the expiration of the payroll-tax holiday.
The drag on spending early last year was particularly strong at retailers dependent on lower-middle-class customers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Dollar General Corp. , or service providers such as no-contract cellphone carriers.
It seems a fair bet that they had a far less taxing start to this year.
Excerpt By Jessica Fiur, News Editor, MHN Online
New York—In downtown Brooklyn, a former seven-story multifamily building is being converted to a 44-unit student housing community. The property, 902-908 Bedford Avenue, houses undergraduates and graduate students and their families, most of whom attend the Pratt Institute and Long Island University.
DelShah Capital LLC, a real estate management and CRE debt acquisition company, in charge of 902-908 Bedford Avenue’s rebranding, along with Distinct New York, a real estate marketing company, renovated the building in eight months. Currently, DelShah, having completed its value-enhancing program, is listing the building with Massey Knakal for sale at $17 million.
The units range from two-bedroom apartments with outdoor balconies to six-bedroom suites.
The apartments also have been given “student-friendly” upgrades, including a student lounge, a rear deck and monitored security cameras. According to Victor Jung, executive vice president of operations of Distinct New York, the apartments have green elements such as nozzles on the showerheads that promote water conservation, “green” paint, and energy efficient appliances.
Rents for 902-908 Bedford Avenue range from $900 per room to $4,500 for a four-bedroom apartment.
“The students seek larger units to share with classmates, are less price sensitive and desire a rental building that caters to their needs in close proximity to specific campus locations,” Michael Shah, principal and CEO of DelShah, said in a statement.
Though one would think that potential residents would be more price sensitive in this slowed economy, this is proving not to be the case for students.
Victor Jung believes this is because the general package of 902-908 Bedford Avenue is so appealing. “We offer stability to students and parents because it’s all inclusive,” he tells MHN.
According to Victor Jung, the appeal also lies in the fact that these off-campus apartments are cheaper than the on-campus ones, and the fact that students have “parent guarantors.”
“Bottom line, they need a place to live,” Victor Jung says.
This appears to be the case—the property is already 98 percent occupied.
By David Jones, The Real Deal
DelShah Capital, led by investor Michael Shah, has officially re-launched the Sunrise Terrace Condominiums in Flushing, Queens, after acquiring the unsold shares at the stalled complex at a foreclosure auction in July. Victor Jung from Distinct New York was enrolled to rebrand, reposition and remarket the property.
DelShah, after acquiring the project’s original $9.6 million senior mortgage from ChinaTrust in November 2009, spent nearly two years working to take over the deal after negotiating a complex series of legal hurdles and direct negotiations with several creditors involved in the project.
Delshah acquired the property’s $6.9 million loan balance for $3.7 million in a foreclosure auction, after a judgment was issued against the previous owners, Paramount Management, in April.
Sunrise Terrace has operated in a tough submarket in Flushing, competing against larger rivals like SkyView Parc and other new condominiums.
Distinct New York, an affiliate of DelShah, is the exclusive marketing and sales agent along with Prudential Douglas Elliman.
Victor Jung, executive vice president at Distinct, said demand is strong for the newly positioned condos.
“It’s a great, unique product,” Jung said. “This property has Trump-like finishes for that community.”
The units have Whirlpool stainless steel kitchen appliances, Techline kitchen cabinets, stone countertops, Kohler bathroom fixtures, washer dryer units and optional parking spaces.
The 41-unit property, at 31-32 Union Street, is offering 17 units for sale ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 square feet and $439,000 to $652,500. Fifteen of the property’s residential apartments were previously sold.
The property’s commercial condos range from $229,000 to $899,000 and range in size from 650 square feet to 2,400 square feet.
DelShah owns a total of 1,750 multi-family units across New York, part of his firm’s 2 million-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio.
Just last month, DelShah purchased a mixed-use multi-family complex at 1356 First Avenue, between 72nd Street and 73rd streets for $9.1 million. The complex is also the home of Petaluma, considered one of the top Italian restaurants on the Upper East Side.
DelShah was an original investor at the Setai at 40 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. In late December 2010, the firm filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from transferring the deed at 40 Broad.
