New York City-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. (AAC) has bought the 83,923-square-foot Ferndale Shopping Center in Larchmont.
The announcement on Monday is the second regarding a Westchester shopping center purchase by AAC in recent weeks. On Nov. 5, the Business Journal reported that the firm had bought The Vernon Hills Shopping Center in Eastchester from Vernon Hills Shopping Center LLC at a price described as being more than $125 million.
The Ferndale sale was said to be at a price exceeding $35 million. The shopping center is  on 6.8 acres at 1310-1340 Boston Post Road. The center is 96% occupied, with tenants including a Stop & Shop supermarket, CVS, Gap and the fast-casual restaurant Cosi. The CVS at the Ferndale site was described as being the only 24-hour drug store permitted in Larchmont and Mamaroneck.
The shopping center was in the news on Dec. 19, 2018, when a fire broke out at the Excelsior Cleaners and went through the roof before being knocked down by firefighters. The entire shopping center was closed until electricity could be turned on.
Daniel Levy, AAC”™s president, said, “Strategically placed shopping centers that are in proximity to a strong consumer base, easily accessible and near other community assets make up an important part of our retail sector portfolio. We plan to implement a carefully constructed business plan at this center to ensure it brings continued benefits to the community.”
Levy”™s remarks on Ferndale parallel what he told the Business Journal about the firm”™s purchase of Vernon Hills, which has more than 380,000 square feet of retail and office space. “Acquiring Vernon Hills has been a goal of ours for over a decade,” he said. “It”™s an irreplaceable property and important part of the greater Westchester community, due to the wide range of tenants it can support and location within a densely populated area.”
In the Ferndale sale, as with Vernon Hills, Cushman & Wakefield”™s capital markets team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, represented the seller and procured the buyer.
Cushman”™s Andrew Merin said, “This Westchester County (shopping) center enjoys a truly irreplaceable, infill location. The adjacent villages of Larchmont and Mamaroneck combine for a consumer base of 150,000 people with an average household income of $160,000 in a three-mile radius.”
AAC owns and manages a portfolio of approximately 15 million square feet. The CEO and chairman of the company is Ben Ashkenazy, who was born in Israel and grew up in Lawrence, Long Island. He entered real estate right after high school and continued while taking classes at Adelphi University. He did not complete college.
Forbes magazine ranked him as number 207 on its list of the Forbes 400 for 2019 and placed his net worth at $3.8 billon. It”™s estimated that the company”™s properties are worth $12 billion. Key properties include leases controlling Faneuil Hall in Boston and Washington, D.C.”™s Union Station.
Among the other properties in AAC”™s portfolio are The Mall at Cross County in Yonkers, Barney”™s New York buildings in both Manhattan and Beverly Hills, Bayside Marketplace in Miami, Harborplace in Baltimore and several buildings on Madison, Lexington and Fifth avenues in Manhattan.
