New York City real estate investment firm AMS Acquistions LLC has bought again in Yonkers.
The company announced Nov. 7 that it has purchased 55 Buena Vista Ave., a 50,000-square-foot development lot, for $18.3 million. The deal, filed with the county on Nov. 2, comes less than a week after the company announced plans to buy the Chicken Island development site from the city for $16 million.
AMS Acquisitions said it plans to build a 24-story tower with 361 luxury apartments on the site, which was once home to the city’s Teutonia Hall.
The city of Yonkers had already approved a previous developer’s plans for site in 2013, which called for a 25-story apartment tower with 361 apartments.
Teutonia Hall was a German-American music and social hall built in 1891. The site was later home to a variety of operations, from a garage with underground storage tanks to a knitting mill, a toy manufacturer and printing facility. But it has sat vacant for decades.
The previous owner, Teutonia Buena Vista LLC, reportedly excavated more than 20,000 pounds of soil to remediate the former brownfield site.
The development could extend the city’s transit-driven growth near its downtown train station. The property is adjacent to train tracks and is about a quarter-mile south of the Yonkers Metro-North Railroad station.
AMS already owns two properties nearby. In January, the company paid $9.5 million for 86 Main St., a 6-story, 70,000-square-foot office building on the southeast corner of Main Street and Buena Vista Avenue across from the train station. The company also owns 92 Main St., a 78,000-square-foot mixed-use building that was formerly a city trolley barn. That building includes 40 live-work lofts and is home to Chase Bank and Yonkers Brewery.
The company’s purchase of the Chicken Island property, meanwhile, hinges on approval from the Yonkers City Council. But the company has already announced its plans to turn the long-abandoned property into a downtown epicenter, with a concentration of shopping, dining, apartment buildings, offices and a luxury hotel.
With the three recent deals, AMS has spent more than $40 million buying properties in downtown Yonkers in the past 12 months.
“Downtown Yonkers is in the midst of a renaissance,” read a statement from Michael Mitnick, a principal at AMS Acquisitions. “AMS is invested heavily in the growth and expansion of this incredible and unique market.”
Formed in 2012, AMS”™ portfolio includes approximately 1.5 million square feet of retail, residential and office space in the tristate region.
