Investor Ben Ashkenazy of Ashkenazy Associates has paid $19 million for a pair of retail properties in Harlem, Crain’s reported.
The deal includes a vacant theater on West 146st Street—the former RKO Hamilton Theater—and an adjacent three-story retail building occupied by an El Mundo department store. Also included is a vacant land parcel next door to the theater on West 147th, which can accommodate up to 20,000-square-feet of development, Crain’s said.
A second property site at 4168 Broadway between 176th and 177th streets, along with a six-story parking garage at West 177th Street with retail space at its base, was also part of the deal.
The seller was real estate investment firm Emmes Properties, which was represented in the deal by Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Crain’s reported.
A source told Crain’s that Ashkenazy is eyeing a conversion of the second property to include more retail space and possibly other commercial uses, such as offices upstairs. “The garage has level concrete floors so the existing structure could be preserved and converted,” the source said. [Crain’s]—Hayley Kaplan