It may come as no surprise to trackers of Westchester County”™s commercial real estate market, but data on the largest sales of 2018 show that apartment buildings are worth big money.
The Business Journal compiled a list of this year’s top 11 property deals in Westchester, as of the end of November, using data from Real Capital Analytics provided by CBRE Group Inc. In a year in which developers built or planned thousands of new apartment units throughout the county, investors spent large sums of money on existing apartment towers and complexes.
Westchester’s two largest deals of 2018 involve apartment properties. The buyer in the third-largest deal, meanwhile, plans to convert office space to apartments.
Jeffrey Dunne, a vice chairman at CBRE, said the year marked a continuation of several trends for Westchester.
“Apartments remain of interest to investors and Westchester County has a somewhat limited supply,” Dunne said. “The office trades often have a value-add or change of use component. A lot of what you are seeing is older, less-functional office space being repurposed into mixed-use apartments or retail projects.”
11. 20 S. Broadway, Yonkers
Price: $26 million
Westchester County property records show this 130,000-square-foot, 12-story office building traded in September for an even $26 million. The property, near the corner of South Broadway and Hudson Street, was sold by 20 S. Broadway LLC, a holding company that listed 20 S. Broadway for its address in the transaction. The buyer is Yonkers Center LLC, a holding company that listed a care of address in the Bronx.
10. Future Wegmans site, Harrison
Price: $26.5 million
Wegmans Food Markets Inc. closed on three empty office buildings on Corporate Park Drive in January. Rochester-based Wegmans has already knocked down the buildings ”” 106, 108 and 110 Corporate Park Drive ”” and is doing site work for a 125,000-square-foot grocery store on the 20-acre site. Normandy Real Estate Partners was the seller.
Newmark Knight Frank Managing Director Christopher Cortese represented Wegmans on the deal. Normandy was represented by NKF Executive Vice President Michael Cottle, senior managing directors Jessica Curtis and Peter Fine, and director Nick Marona.
9. The Apex at 290, Elmsford
Price: $33.8 million
SME Development opened this 81-unit apartment building at 290 E. Main Street in the summer of 2017. In February, the company sold the property for $33.8 million to an affiliate company of the California-based national property manager JRK Property Holdings. The apartments, overlooking Route 119, are a mix of one and two bedrooms. Amenities include a rooftop lounge, fitness center, television lounge and business center.
8. 527 Riverdale Ave., Yonkers
Price: $36 million
This 143-unit apartment building, just north of the Bronx line in Ludlow, traded in May. The buyer, The Real Deal reported at the time, is Emerald Equity Group, which owns several multifamily buildings in New York City. Rosewood Realty Group arranged the deal. The 7-story, roughly 161,000-square-foot building contains 143 rent-regulated apartments.
7. The Cambium condos, Larchmont
Price: $43.5 million
Northeast Property Owner Inc., an affiliate of Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd., bought 77 condominiums in Larchmont”™s The Cambium in March. The transaction represented a “rare bulk condominium sale outside of the Manhattan market,” according to Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the seller. Property records show the seller as Byron Place Associates LLC, managed by Ceres Realty Group of Katonah.
6. Lighthouse Living apartment portfolio, White Plains
Price: $45 million
The $45 million represents the total price for three separate deals for White Plains apartment buildings totaling 104 units. The buildings include: The Dylan, a four-story apartment building located at 42 Waller Ave; La Gianna, a five-story property at 10 Dekalb Ave. and The Reed, a three-story building located at 115 N. Broadway.
The apartment were developed and sold by David Mann”™s Lighthouse Enterprises in conjunction with The Daten Group. The buyer in each deal was an LLC with an address in Bedford Hills. Marcus & Millichap”™s Victoria Fisher and Jim Evans represented the seller.
5. Reckson Executive Park, Rye Brook
Price: $55 million
Manhattan-based George Comfort & Sons acquired this six-building office portfolio in July through a joint venture with a fund managed by DRA Advisors. The buildings, totaling 560,000 square feet, were sold by longtime owner SL Green.
The office park is directly on the New York-Connecticut border off King Street in the Rye Brook village. Its 1-6 International Drive addresses include tenants such as Xylem Inc. and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society”™s national office.
CBRE represented SL Green on the deal and procured the buyer.
4. Rivertowns Square, Dobbs Ferry
Price: $69 million
National retail property manager Regency Squares bought this sprawling shopping and residential campus in April. The 116,000-sqaure-foot development features shops, restaurants, a grocery store, movie theater, 200 apartments and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel. The property was sold and developed by Saber Dobbs Ferry LLC, a joint venture of Saber Real Estate Advisors and Dobbs Ferry Capital Partners LLC.
3. Westchester Financial Center/City Square, White Plains
Price: $83 million
In April, Martin Ginsburg”™s Ginsburg Development Cos. teamed up with Robert Martin Co. to acquire the center”™s two prominent downtown office buildings. The buildings total about 570,000 square feet on Main Street and Martine Avenue. The deal marked the highest price on an office property fetched all year.
Ginsburg has since bought Robert Martin”™s share in the property, a company spokesperson told the Business Journal in November. Ginsburg has a proposal under review by the city, called City Square, to convert part of one of the office properties ””1-11 Martine Ave. ””to 188 apartments. The other building, 50 Main St., would receive extensive renovations. The Valhalla developer”™s plans also include adding about 20,000 square feet of retail space and creating a City Square Park in the building”™s interior courtyard.
2. Talleyrand Apartments, Tarrytown
Price: $91 million
The DSF Group bought this townhouse-style 300-unit apartment complex at 1202 Crescent Drive in March. The apartments, along Crescent Drive off White Plains Road, were sold by Equity Residential, an S&P 500 real estate investment trust held the property for 16 years. CBRE announced it had brokered the deal to Boston-based DSF Group following the sale.
1. Ridgeview Apartments, Elmsford
Sale: $101 million
Westchester”™s lone nine-figure deal in 2018, Ridgeview”™s 416 garden-style apartments at 32 Nob Hill Drive in Elmsford traded in July. Property records show the buyer as Ares Management, a Los Angeles-based alternative assets manager. The seller was Ridgeview Holdings II LLC, based in Westchester. The apartments were built in phases in the early 1990s by the Cappelli Organization and are on about 25 acres wedged between Interstate 287 and the Saw Mill River Parkway. The off-market deal was brokered by Aliza Avital-Caplan of Emerald Equities NYC, The Real Deal reported at the time of the sale.
