[Photo at No. 444 from May 2015 by Stacie Joy]
Raphael Toledano of Brookhill Properties has put another of his East Village buildings on the block.
As noted last week, Toledano is in the process of selling multiple EV properties.
Now the latest address for sale is 444 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
First, to the 444 listing at Cushman & Wakefield:
The building consists of a vacant ground floor space with 16 apartments above. Of the 16 residential units, all are subject to rent stabilization. Eight units are renovated with condo-level finishes that include wide plank wood floors, white marble bathrooms, re-finished exposed brick, gray washed stained wood cabinetry, and stainless steel appliances. The average in-place rent is approximately $70 per square foot which is below market. The newly renovated ground floor space is currently vacant.
The building is located less than a block from the 1st Avenue L train stop and within close proximity to neighborhood hot spots such as Hearth and The Redhead. Additionally, the building is less than a block from 500 East 14th Street where Extell is developing a large mixed-use condo building with over 40,000 SF of retail that will drive long term foot traffic.
The asking price is $9.9 million. Toledano bought the building for $6.1 million in January 2015, per public records.
And this was the address where many people first heard about the 26-year-old Toledano. In the spring of 2015, rent-regulated tenants at No. 444 accused Toledano, and a management company he reportedly hired (then later fired), of harassment and intimidation.
There are tape recorded conversations where a rep for Goldmark Property Management reportedly said, among other things to a rent-stabilized tenant: "I'm here, really, to help you. Because if it were up to the owners, they would just drop dynamite on the whole building and everyone would figure it out."
(The Times published the audio recordings here... Gothamist posted them here.)
Back in May, Toledano agreed to pay a little more than $1 million to settle claims that he harassed the tenants, according to The Real Deal. The Times reported that most of the the tenants are "low-wage workers of Mexican descent who pay modest rents for the neighborhood and have lived in their building for decades."
In the past year, Toledano purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for a total of $140 million.
The Brookhill Properties website shows that the company owns 21 buildings in the East Village. Of those, 9 are now for sale:
• 27 St. Mark's Place — $16.5 million
• 66 E. Seventh St. — $12 million
• 253 E. 10th St. — $11 million
• 510 and 514 E. 12th St. — $24.5 million (must be purchased together)
• 97 Second Ave. (bids now being accepted)
• 221 E. 10th St. and 58 St. Mark’s Place (part of a four-building portfolio with 2 Kips Bay addresses asking $36 million)
• 444 E. 13th St. — $9.9 million
Experienced real-estate players have raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt, per The Real Deal.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'
Cleaning up 444 E. 13th St.
Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano
Health Department to inspect Raphael Toledano's East Village properties for toxic levels of lead dust
Hopefully the new owners won't be dicks. Toledano might be rich but he is not self-made. He used Aaron Jungreis' money and connections to set up an under the table deal to buy a portfolio of buildings significantly below market price. Jungreis could have chosen anyone to play the part that Toledano played and the result would have been the same.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fire sale to me. You don't start flooding the market with properties like this in the middle of a real estate boom unless there is a cash crunch. His cash flow must be worse than expected, or the loan payments could be stretching him thin. There's more to the story than meets the eye. If it was that easy to make a killing flipping building everyone would be doing it.
ReplyDeletePrediction: Rafael Toledano's next move will be to take all this cash and then corner the market on Smurfs.
ReplyDelete@ 10:31: or, they know that the real estate bubble has been stretched as far as it can be stretched right now, and they are getting out before it bursts.
ReplyDeletethey are flipping real estate
ReplyDelete10:56
ReplyDeleteI think you hit it on the head. It's bubble time! And the pros are scurrying out of the EV and leaving the mess to the amateurs... just like in 2008.
WHY can't the bubble just go on forever?
ReplyDelete@cmarrtyy: What makes you think "amateurs" have the kind of $$ to buy these buildings at inflated "flip" prices? What's being asked (and apparently paid) is some serious $$.
ReplyDeleteThere are probably many people with serious money who aren't experts on nyc real estate but see it as a good investment or a place to park there money.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Toledano quoted as saying he would never sell just a month or so ago? Villified, deservedly so for being disruptive and uncaring to his tenants. Hope he does not make $, but the asking prices are like 50% above what he paid just a couple years ago, he should make millions whether he is a puppet for another investor or a self made man. He (or his bosses) timed the market well, this is what happens.
ReplyDeleteDonnie, you call it timing I call it criminal tax evasion. Something's fishy about the initial purchase. Timing and reading the market is not a factor when someone sells you something for 50% below what it should sell for.
ReplyDelete@1:56pm: I agree totally with what you've said.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what they are doing there is a HOT place in Hell for crooked con artist landlords like this that have had there tenants being harassed and living in unhealthily Enviorments .He should be forced to live in one of his lead /asbestos buildings with his family.He has really done a number on this community .
ReplyDelete