A Developer Makes A Shift From Offices In The Suburbs To City Housing
Douglas Steiner, Chairman of Steiner NYC
Over the years, the property at 142 North Sixth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has gone through many changes. It has been a popular flea market, a condominium development with a bamboo garden, and, most recently, luxury rental apartments. Now, the 44-unit building has changed hands once again.
Steiner NYC closed late last month on a $38 million purchase of the building, which it intends to keep as a rental property. It is the developer’s latest residential acquisition in the borough, and part of its larger strategy to reposition its portfolio into multifamily properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn and out of suburban office buildings.
Recently, Steiner NYC has been on a buying spree. It acquired a vacant building at 815 Broadway in Bushwick that it will gut and renovate into a rental building with 40 to 60 units, and a 60-unit rental building at 204 Huntington Street in Carroll Gardens that it plans to renovate. It also plans to break ground next year on the Hub, a 720-unit rental high-rise at 333 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn and is in the midst of closing on its first Manhattan site, land south of 23rd Street where it will build a 100-unit luxury rental building.
“Residential properties are the future of this company,” said Douglas Steiner, the company’s chairman, perched on a chair in his sprawling office at Steiner Studios, the Hollywood-style movie and television lot he opened in 2004.
The Williamsburg property, known as Jardin, also includes two retail units and an underground parking garage. It had been marketed as condominiums and was about half-sold when, about six months ago, the developer rescinded the purchases and converted the property into rentals. It leased the units in just three weeks, according to David Behin, president of investment sales and capital advisory at MNS, who represented Mr. Steiner and the seller, the Read Property Group.
“In my world, if you rent something very quickly, typically it means it is undermarket,” Mr. Behin said, adding that the units rented for roughly $53 a square foot, about 10 to 15 percent below their market value.
“It is a great building in a perfect location, and Doug saw an opportunity to increase the value of the asset by buffing up the rents,” he said.
Categories: Magazine · Newspaper