Property owner Lloyd Goldman is on a bit of a roll. He’s closed on or in contract to buy at least three small retail properties over the last four months in Manhattan and says there are more to come.
Most recently Goldman, president of BLDG Management, which is one of the major commercial owners in the city, acquired the two-story commercial property at 888 Lexington Avenue on the corner of 65th Street Jan. 24 for $13.25 million from Allen Rosenberg’s struggling Alrose Group, city property records published yesterday show.
The 5,658-square-foot commercial building has an additional nearly 20,000 square feet of development rights, PropertyShark.com shows, giving it a sale price of about $517 per square foot.
Goldman told The Real Deal that he was snapping up lower-priced properties because they have more attractive rates of return, and also because there are fewer buyers competing for them.
“There seem to be [fewer] people playing in this marketplace than in the large assets [market],” Goldman said. “[There], the amount of players playing is driving the prices up and the cap rates way down.”
And, he added, “If you buy enough of these it’s like buying a big deal.” He said he has completed about “five or six deals” in the past four weeks.
Goldman’s New Property Has A Janovic Plaza Paint & Wallpaper, which is owned by Benjamin Moore, on the ground floor, and on the second floor a school called the Language Workshop for Children. He said Aaron Jungreis, president of Rosewood Realty, was the broker on the deal. Jungreis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The leases are not ending anytime soon, Goldman said, but he would not be more specific. A source familiar with the Janovic lease said it was a 10-year lease with about six years remaining, but that could not be confirmed.
“If the tenants ever went out or didn’t renew, I’d probably build a larger commercial building there,” Goldman said.
Rosenberg bought the building in August 2006 for $9.35 million, city records show.
Banks were putting pressure on the Alrose Group last year by putting several of his loans on the market; in addition, the company that owns the land under the Allegria Hotel in Long Beach, L.I., put it into bankruptcy in July (note: correction appended).
Goldman’s other transactions over the past year include a January contract to buy the retail condominium occupied by residential brokerage Core, at 127 Seventh Avenue at 18th Street for $6.6 million, and 300 East 79th Street on the Upper East Side for $10.5 million in October sources and city records show.
In addition, last year Goldman partnered with Related Companies to buy a retail condo at 123 Third Avenue at 14th Street for $11.05 million; and with Tavros Capital to close on a busted condo site at 448-452 Broome Street in Soho for $17 million.