Real estate investor taps into Westchester

New player in Westchester real estate

A Boston-area real estate investment firm led by a former top Wall Street executive has cracked the Westchester commercial market with a $34 million property purchase in downtown White Plains.

DSF Group is looking to follow its metropolitan New York debut with more acquisitions in Westchester and Fairfield County, Conn.

 

Joshua Solomon, president and chief investment officer at DSF Group, said the firm closed June 14 on its purchase of AVE White Plains, an extended-stay corporate apartment building at 25 Martine Ave.

The seller, Korman Communities Inc., based in suburban Philadelphia, Pa., in 2004 paid approximately $35.9 million for the roughly 90,000-square-foot building, which includes 2,000 square feet of vacant street-level retail space.

Solomon said DSF is renovating the building for conversion to 124 boutique luxury apartments that will be available to renters by early July.

Renamed Halstead White Plains Metro North, the complex of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments is managed by Bozzuto Management Co., a division of the Maryland-based Bozzuto Group, which operates several other DSF properties in the Boston and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Bozzuto also manages 15 Bank Apartments in downtown White Plains.

Solomon said the AVE extended-stay building was not listed on the market when his company was steered to it by an industry contact in White Plains. “We”™re intent on getting a toehold in this market and found a great opportunity,” he said. In the metropolitan New York market, “We particularly like Westchester County and Fairfield County.”

Solomon in 2000 co-founded the private real estate investment firm with his father, Arthur P. Solomon, and a third partner, Thomas Mazza, DSFӪs chief operating officer. Arthur Solomon was senior partner and head of real estate investment banking and real estate principal investments at Lazard Fr̬res & Co. and served as CEO of LazardӪs five real estate funds. He previously founded and was senior partner of the real estate investment banking group at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Headquartered in suburban Waltham, Mass., DSF Group has invested more than $1.5 billion in about 4 million square feet of commercial and residential space, primarily in suburban Virginia and the Boston area.

The renovating landlord in White Plains this month donated furniture and home goods from 50 apartments at 25 Martine Ave. to Furniture Sharehouse, the Westchester nonprofit that provides free furniture to economically disadvantaged residents in the county.

 

Fabrics maker relocates

Ultrafabrics L.L.C., the polyurethane fabrics manufacturer, has relocated within Westchester County to 16,350 square feet of warehouse and distribution space at 4 Warehouse Lane in Mack-Cali Realty Corp.”™s Elmsford Distribution Center.

The company moved from 16 Saw Mill River Road, Hawthorne.

The tenant”™s broker in the lease deal was Howard E. Greenberg, president of Howard Properties Ltd. in White Plains. He has represented Ultrafabrics in leases for its headquarters and warehouse and distribution facilities since 1998.

Attorneys share downtown space

Trust and estate attorneys Richard J. Bowler and Magdalen Gaynor will operate their solo practices from a shared office at 10 Bank St. in White Plains, where both tenants already maintain offices.

The lawyers are scheduled to relocate in October to the 3,279-square-foot office they leased through 2021, said Jeffrey H. Newman, executive vice president of building owner Malkin Properties.

Newman represented the landlord in the transaction, along with Malkin”™s senior leasing associate Kimberly Zaccagnino and leasing associate Tara Long. The tenants were represented by Craig S. Ruoff of Rakow Commercial Realty Group Inc.