UPDATED, March 17, 4:45 p.m.: Rick Rosan’s Oak Tree Residential and Management, in partnership with California-based Avanath Capital Management, is in contract to pick up an 18-building Brooklyn multifamily portfolio from ZT Realty for $76 million, or roughly $435 per square foot, sources told The Real Deal.
The 174,380-square-foot portfolio holds 207 rental apartments in central and north Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Of the apartments, 123 are rent-stabilized.
The purchase is a big move for Rosan, who served as the CEO of nonprofit research organization the Urban Land Institute from 1992 to 2011 and quietly makes real estate deals through his Park Slope-based investment firm. Oak Tree, founded in 1985, specializes in buying Brooklyn rental buildings and converted them to co-ops, according to its website. The firm also bought a four-building Brooklyn portfolio for $60 million in 2015 and is developing an 11-story condominium project in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., called the Wave.
It’s unclear what Oak Tree is planning for these buildings. Addresses include 147 Grand Street and 135 Devoe Street in Williamsburg, 267-269 Clifton Place in Bed-Stuy, and 244 New York Avenue in Crown Heights.
ZT Realty, a Downtown Brooklyn-based investment firm led by Peter Tessler, bought up the buildings in several different deals over the past seven years, records show. The company hired a Marcus & Millichap team in October to put it on the market with an asking price of $80 million.
Marcus & Millichap’s Shaun Riney, Peter Von Der Ahe, Joseph Koicim and Michael Salvatico are representing the seller, and Cushman & Wakefield’s DJ Johnston and Stephen Palmese are advising the buyer. They declined to comment. Representatives for Oak Tree and ZT Realty could not be immediately reached.
The Brooklyn multifamily market dropped 12 percent in dollar volume in 2016, to $4 billion, year-over-year. Notable recent deals include A&E Real Estate Holdings’ [TRDataCustom] five-building purchase for $89 million and Black Spruce Management’s eight-building purchase for $27 million.
(To view a selection of properties owned by A&E Real Estate Holdings or Black Spruce Management, click here)