Complex deal on Houston
Ashkenazy buys $400M Avalon Chrystie Place
A SHKENAZY Acquisition Corp. has signed a contract to buy Avalon Chrystie Place for just under $400 million.
We’ve learned the active acquirers, led by Ben Ashke
nazy and Michael Alpert, are the winners of the soughtafter retail and apartment complex at Houston and The Bowery that includes Whole Foods.
Andrew Scandalios, an investment broker with HFF, handled the sales process that began in January. The seller is an investment group led by the real estate investment trust Avalon Bay Communities.
Designed by Arquitectonica and completed in 2005, the 361unit 80/20 project at 229 Chrystie St. is 95 percent occupied, with 72 of those apartments paying affordable rents.
But sources said both the marketrate units and the 72,300 squarefoot Whole Foods lease — which ends in 2028 — are now paying below market rents, and will thus provide ongoing rolling upside. The only two apartments for rent, for instance, are an alcove studio with a separate kitchen for more than $3,000 and a twobedroom for $6,000 per month.
The project was initially de veloped as a result of Avalon-Bay and an institutional partner, along with Phipps Houses and retail consultant Will
iams Jackson Ewing, winning a request for proposals from the city to buy the land.
Developed over 1.33 acres, the tower of the 14story building is one of the highest in the area and has views to downtown. It includes a fitness center and roof deck as well as a billiards room and other amenities, including the use of a pool.
The pool was developed as part of the deal with the city. It is located in a $14 millionplus, 42,000 squarefoot multilevel underground ‘Y’ that also has a fitness center and gym, meeting rooms and a dance studio.
As the Y, retail and residential portions are already divided into separate condominiums, the sale attracted many bidders with different exit strategies.
This is the first foray into the apartment market for Ashkenazy, as it has until now concentrated on retail and office buildings such as the operating office leasehold at 635 Madison and the land under 625 Madison, as well as the Barney’s retail at 600 Madison.
Ashkenazy has also purchased the retail at 1311 Lexington Ave. and in the base of 200 Central Park South.
Ashkenazy and HFF did not return requests for comment and an Avalon-Bay spokesman declined to comment on any possible transaction.
For its city entry, Skagen, a luxury division of Denmarkbased Fossil, has leased a flagship store as part of the parent company’s 15year lease extension at 1585 Broadway at the corner of West 48th Street.
Skagen, which sells highstyle watches along with jewelry, leather accessories and home goods, will open in 1,585 square feet next to the 3,241 square feet now leased by Fossil. Amira Yunis of CBRE represented the tenant.
According to the spring Real Estate Board of New York retail report, rents in Times Square reached new highs, with average groundfloor asking rents ticking up 11 percent yearoveryear to $2,407 per foot.
Howard Milstein, Chairman of the Thruway Authority, which oversees the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Erie Canal along with the portions of the Interstate, was in Tarrytown to hear President Obama speak on the nation’s infrastructure needs.
Milstein told us Congress should allow US corporations to get a low tax rate on the repatriation of billions of dollars now held overseas if they would fund some infrastruc ture projects.
He did not suggest diverting part or all of the taxes to directly fund the needed work, but we do. It’s time for Con gress to pass some bills and fix our decaying bridges, train tracks and autodestroying, corduroylike roads.