Thursday, October 28, 2010

Three-building parcel on Avenue B now on market for $21 million



Massey Knakal has listed the three buildings making up 40-44 Avenue B.

Here's the description:

Three adjacent 24’ wide buildings combine for 72’ of frontage along Avenue B in the heart of the East Village. The properties are five-story plus basement walk-up mixed-use apartment buildings. The buildings combine for approximately 23,697 total above grade square feet. There are 4 stores and 33 apartments of which 1 is rent stabilized, 2 are rent controlled and the remaining 33 units are all free market. The buildings consist of 25 one-bedroom apartments and 11 two-bedroom units. The rent regulated units have average rents of $652 per month versus the average rent of a free market (renovated) one-bedroom apartment of $2,430 per month. The average rent of the two-bedroom units is $3,316 per month. In addition there are four retail stores that have leases expiring between February 2103 and June 2022. The average rent for the four stores is $62/SF, nearly 50% of what market rents are for retail along the Avenue B corridor. All of the free market units have been renovated to include new hardwood floors, marble tiles in the bathrooms, granite countertops and new appliances including dishwashers in the kitchens and washer/dryer in the units. ... Expenses are extremely low as the tenants in 40-42 have their own individual boilers and pay for their own heat and hot water. Vacancies at these buildings are few and far between.


No mention in the description that these buildings were heavily damaged during a four-alarm fire back in 2004.

8 comments:

nygrump said...

HOw did all those old apts go out of rent stabilization?

Patrick... said...

I just want the commercial lease that runs through February 2103! :)

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Are 100-year leases still offered for businesses? If so, I wonder which on it is as it will surely be an old neighborhood staple 70 years from now... :)

Caleo said...

3,300 for a 2 bedroom ????
This summer I looked at 1 bedrooms on C for 1,900. So an extra closet bumps it up to 3,300 ???
I thought nonsense like that had calmed down a couple of years ago.

glamma said...

they really need to start providing rent-stabilization to businesses...

Anonymous said...

These buildings are all owned by Croman/9300Realty. Almost all have been (nicely) renovated but they are small and overpriced. Croman has been buying up buildings in the neighborhood like crazy and doing these gut renovations. I guess they need some more cash to continue their buying spree.

Jill said...

We are seeing the backside of their flip. I am confident that when they bought these buildings there were a lot more rent regulated tenants that they harassed out of there so they could renovate and bring the rents to market rate.

Unfortunately there is hardly anybody left there to ask about what happened, the new tenants won't know. Surely the statement that vacancies are few and far between cannot be true. My experience in my building is that the young tenants paying exorbitant rates for a tiny tiny apartment don't stay for more than a year, maybe two, til they graduate, or get their first big wall street bonus and move to new jersey.

chris flash said...

To NyGrump:

These apts were rent-regulated until the fire that forced them to evacuate. The landlord sat on the buildings for a long time, long enough for the tenants to find other lodgings or leave the city, and then did the gut-renovations to get market rate rents.

Something similar took place in the building at the corner of Orchard + Houston, which rents a store to American Apparel. That owner allowed his building to incur serious safety violations that resulted in the city vacating the building. After about a year later, the building was nicely fixed up, with another half floor added, and then rented out to new higher-rent paying tenants.

There ought to be some sort of protection for tenants who are forced out due to a fire or a landlord's negligence to reclaim their apts.