Westville Complex Sells For $50M

A Westville apartment complex that last sold for $41 million has flipped owners again — this time for another $8‑plus million, and $12 million more than the value the city places on it.

A New Jersey-based investment firm through an entity called Westville Ventures LLC purchased the five-building, 294-unit ​“Westville Village” apartment complex at 400 Blake St. for $50 million on Dec. 11 from Wintergreen of Westville LLC, according to the city’s online land records database.

The brick gated community covers 7.96 acres, includes 586 parking spots , and sits just across the West River from the commercial heart of Westville.

The property last sold in 2012 for $41.65 million to a partnership between a Long Island real estate company and Singapore’s largest private bank. The city last appraised it as worth $38.07 million.

According to the state’s business registry database, the new ownership company is controlled by Shloime Rosenberg of Lakewood, N.J.

City land records also show that, on Dec. 9, Westville Ventures borrowed $41.2 million from the New Jersey-based commercial mortgage giant Berkadia in the form of a 10-year mortgage on the Blake Street property.

The Independent was not able to reach Rosenberg or his business partner Shlomo Katz — who signed the mortgage document on behalf of Westville Ventures — for comment by the publication time of this article.

Westville Village appears, however, to not be their only large apartment complex, or their only recent multi-million-dollar residential buy.

In April 2020, the South Florida Business Journal reported that Lancaster Apt Ventures LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company controlled by Rosenberg and Katz, purchased a 78-unit apartment complex in West Palm Beach for $10.5 million. And in October 2020, PincusCo reported that another Rosenberg-controlled company, 2252 Haviland Holdings LLC, borrowed $18.6 million from Berkadia for its 120-unit apartment complex in the Bronx.

The Westville apartment complex’s previous owners, meanwhile, were UOB Eagle Rock Multifamily Property Fund LP — a private equity fund run by the Long Island-based Eagle Rock Ventures and Singapore’s United Overseas Bank.

When asked by email why they decided to sell the Westville Village complex, Eagle Rock Advisors LLC President James Hausman told the Independent that the ​“investment period in Eagle Rock’s fund that owned the property is just about over — which means that we are required to sell the properties remaining in that fund. 

“The sale should not negatively impact residents as the buyer is a strong firm,” he continued. ​“Westville Village Apartments is a wonderful community located in a great area and I wish we could have owned it longer. We are strong believers in the future of New Haven and hope to make new investments in the area.”

The $50 million change in ownership represents just the latest turn for an apartment complex that was built at a former factory site in 2007, fell into foreclosure in 2011, and was picked up by the UOB Eagle Rock partnership in 2012 for what then amounted to the largest sale of a residential complex in the state all year.

Click here to read a previous Independent article all about the 2012 sale, the history of the complex, and the now-former landlord’s plans for the property.

The Westville Village apartments are bounded by the West River and Wintergreen Brook, and stand just across the river from where Ocean Management plans to build 129 new market-rate apartments at the site of the former 500 Blake Street Cafe.

A brief visit to the Westville Village complex on Friday morning found the few tenants walking around the campus largely happy with the quality and upkeep of their apartments.

It’s a nice place to live, said Garrett Gram (pictured), who was in the middle of doing chores while on a day off from his job as a physical therapist at Yale New Haven Health’s Bridgeport Hospital. He said he’s lived at Westville Village for a little over a year.

“I don’t really have any complaints,” he said. Gram said he knew about the recent change in ownership. ​“I haven’t noticed much of a change.”

Another tenant, who gave his name as John Harris, said, ​“I like it here very much” with a smile and a wave as he walked briskly across the elevated complex’s courtyard in the winter sunshine.

Looking For ​“More Engagement With The Village”

Both Lizzy Donius and Richard Furlow told the Independent that they were caught a bit off guard when asked for comment about the new change in ownership of the massive apartment complex on Blake Street.

Donius is the executive director of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance. Furlow is the alder for the area and the Board of Alders majority leader. Neither had heard that the property had been sold before being asked by this reporter.

“I would definitely like to meet them,” Furlow said about the new owners. He said he usually hears about such large transactions first from the city’s economic development office, but not this time. (The city’s economic development administrator did not respond to email requests for comment by the publication time of this article.)

“The people that I speak with who live in that complex are relatively happy,” Furlow said. ​“They pretty much keep to themselves. It’s a good community. You don’t hear of much crime or anything else going on. It’s sort of a gated community.”

He said he’s eager to know what the new owners’ plans are for the complex: Will they be making any major changes? Raising rents? Adding or removing structures? Renovating the complex?

Donius said that she would like to see ​“more engagement with the Village” under this complex’s new ownership.

“It’s so close and it’s so big,” she said. ​“And it’s almost surprisingly disengaged from what goes on in Westville.” Because the complex is gated and elevated, and because the entrance faces away from the heart of the neighborhood, ​“there’s not a lot of need to be integrated into the street life of Westville.”

Ideally, the new owners will bring a ​“deeper commitment to identifying with the Village” by showing up to neighborhood meetings and getting involved in some way with their neighbors and the wealth of cultural institutions and small businesses that anchor the neighborhood.

“It’d be great to see people living in those apartments feel part of the community,” she said.

Amity Motel Sold; Mandy Management Buys 15 More Apts.

In other recent city property transactions, Dreamland Hospitality LLC purchased the Best Way Inn at 45 Pond Lily Ave. for $1.7 million from Courtesy Inn LLC.

The motel last sold for $650,000 in 2001, and the city last appraised the property as worth $1,140,900. The new ownership company is controlled by Maltiben Dave, Hitesh Dave, and Ishan Dave.

And affiliate companies of the local mega-landlord Mandy Management spent over $1.2 million buying five different residential properties containing 15 different apartments.

Those recent purchases round out a year when Mandy affiliates spent over $37 million growing their local real estate empire.

The latest buys included:

• 41 Hillside Ave., a four-family house that Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC bought for $350,000 on Dec. 21 from Hillside LLC. The property last sold for $315,000 in 2020, and the city last appraised it as worth $205,300.

• 203 West St., a three-family house that Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC bought for $267,500 on Dec. 23 from Galateact LLC. The property last sold for $180,000 in 2017, and the city last appraised it as worth $159,500.

• 1268 Whalley Ave., a three-family house that Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC bought for $267,500 on Dec. 23 from Galateact LLC. The property last sold for $235,000 in 2017, and the city last appraised it as worth $191,800.

• 277 Munson St., a three-family house that SFR 2 DE LLC bought for $185,500 on Dec. 31 from Rondad Ward. The city last appraised the property as worth $130,100.

• 336 Exchange St., a two-family house that Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC bought for $140,000 on Dec. 9 from Mirtha Belahonia. The property last sold for $45,000 in 2015, and the city last appraised it as worth $113,200.