The Wafra Group Sells The Nathaniel in East Village for $57 Million

The Wafra Group is taking one on the chin for an East Village mixed-use property it purchased seven years ago.

The investment firm sold The Nathaniel at 138 East 12th Street to The Westover Companies for $56.8 million, roughly 42 percent less than the $98.3 million it paid for the luxury rental building in 2015. The deal works out to about $838 per square foot. Crain’s was first to report on the transaction.

It’s not clear why the property sold for more than $40 million less than its previous sale price. Wafra has not responded to a request for comment.

A JLL team consisting of Steve Rutman and Rob Hinckley brokered the transaction, Traded reported. A separate JLL team consisting of Steven Klein and Jamie Leachman represented Westover in acquiring $26.9 million in financing for the purchase. There’s no information on the acquisition financing.

The 68,000-square-foot development was built in 2014 on the corner of East 12th Street and Third Avenue in the East Village. The nine-story property features 85 units across roughly 50,000 rentable square feet and an 18,000-square-foot Westside Market grocery store on the building’s ground floor.

This marks the Pennsylvania-based Westover Companies’ first purchase in New York City. The property owner and management company’s portfolio includes about 15,000 units in more than 70 locations along the East Coast in states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida.

Westover also manages about 2 million square feet of retail and commercial across eight shopping centers and 11 office buildings in the Philadelphia area.

Among the firm’s recent acquisitions include a $79 million purchase last December of a 240-unit apartment complex in Dania Beach, Florida and a $55 million deal in 2019 for a 331-unit multifamily property in Westchester, Florida.