NEW YORK CITY—In one of Brooklyn's largest ever single-asset sales, a partnership of Quinlan Development Group and Building & Land Technology has purchased 37-53 Flatbush Ave.—referred to as 41 Flatbush Ave. by the previous owner and also known as 76-92 Rockwell Place—for $90 million. The seller was a partnership between Prudential Real Estate Investors and Extra Space Storage.
Eastern Consolidated's Andrew Sasson, director, represented the seller while Ben Tapper, principal and senior director at the real estate services firm, represented the buyer in the off-market transaction. Quinlan and B< plan to convert the property—which is currently being used as a storage facility—into office space, an asset reportedly much needed in Downtown Brooklyn.
“There are about 17,000 apartments coming online in Downtown Brooklyn and there's a gigantic lack of office space,” Sasson tells GlobeSt.com. “The potential it has for an office conversion, with floor plates that are beyond [anything], is great. There's nothing like it in the area. You have older office stock at Metrotech and then you have this newer inventory.”
He adds, “This is one of the highest prices ever paid for a single asset in Brooklyn and its one of the biggest single asset deals, in terms of square footage, in the borough's history. It's the fourth biggest single asset sale since January 2010 and the others were in other parts of Brooklyn,” like Williamsburg or Dumbo.
The transformation of other types of assets into office space echoes what's happening in other corners of Brooklyn, Sasson notes. “This is what's happening in Dumbo, but it's not Dumbo, it's Downtown Brooklyn.”
Quinlan partner Tyler Wilkins tells GlobeSt.com, “About 1.5 million square feet of retail and over 1,000 hotel rooms will be coming online within two to three blocks of property, so this office space will be at the epicenter of a new area bookended by Barclays Center and the City Point complex.”
“Our tenant sectors will be driven by TAMI companies but this is a block-through building so we can carve out an exclusive entrance or core for a tenant wanting its only lobby and essentially a building within a building.”
Following the conversion, notes Wilkins, the building also will feature 21,000 square feet of retail space at the ground floor and on the lower level. The timeline he set forth for the entire project is ambitious.
“We hope to deliver at least part, or most, of the building by year-end and the balance of the building shortly afterward,” Wilkins says. “We're going to move as quickly as we can because demand right now is white hot.”
“The demand for office space in our neighborhood is at historic highs and our supply is at record lows,” explains Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. “The key to a healthy Downtown is a mix of uses that supports a diverse, 24/7 neighborhood.”
Adds Tapper, “Downtown Brooklyn's vibrant real estate market continues to attract major attention and interest from a diverse array of investors. This asset features convenient access to every major subway line in the immediate area.”
The 230,000-square-foot, 10-story building is located between Lafayette avenue and Fulton street. The property sits on a half-acre and features over 154 feet of frontage. There are 355 units in the facility and leases on these units are on 30-day to six-month terms, which gives the purchaser the flexibility to vacate the building within six months.
The building, with frontage on both Flatbush Avenue and Rockwell Place, is close to the Long Island Railroad and the Atlantic Subway Station, providing access to the No. 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q and R subway lines, as well as a large quantity of retail.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
