Stacey Corso is editor of Real Estate New York For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.

BROOKLYN, NY-A partnership comprised of the Dermot Co., a private developer based in New York City, and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds LP of Los Angeles has acquired the landmark Williamsburg Savings Bank building here. The JV, which is partially controlled by former professional basketball player Magic Johnson, has decided to convert the 78-year-old structure into a $165-million luxury condominium project, one of the largest condo conversions the borough has seen so far this year.

In addition to its approximately 216 condominium residences, which will range in size from studios to three-bedroom units, the property will have 33,000 sf of ground-floor retail. Starting prices for the condo units were not released at deadline, although the Corcoran Group is the marketing agent. The first units are expected to come on line in the summer of 2006.

H. Thomas O'Hara has been tapped as the architect. He has been instructed to maintain the landmark property's exterior facade, interior bank vaults as well as its famous clock tower perched atop the building, according to a spokesman for CJUF. K. Robert Turner is a managing partner of Canyon-Urban Johnson Funds, an equity investment fund that is devoted to revitalizing apartment buildings and mixed-use projects in inner cities. He is a partner with Johnson. This transaction marks CJUF's first purchase utilizing equity from its second fund, Canyon-Urban Johnson Fund II, which is capitalized with $600 million of equity.