Aaron Feldman and Jordan Vogel’s Benchmark Real Estate Group has paid $57 million for a mixed-use apartment and retail building in the East Village.
The property is located at 55 Third Avenue between 10th and 11th streets and has 55 rental units and 10,500 square feet of retail space. Current commercial tenants at the building include American eatery the Smith and Asian deli M2M.
Benchmark intends to renovate and upgrade the apartment units as well as increase the retail space by up to 20 percent, Russell Frahm of Los Angeles-based Mesa West Capital, which financed the acquisition, told the Wall Street Journal.
The seller was identified in city records by the Journal as 200 Eleventh Street Associates, the same firm that developed the building in 1986.
Benchmark has been a zealous player in the Downtown market, and recently doubled their money on the sale of a Greenwich Village walk-up at 48 Bedford Street, as The Real Deal reported. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani