Thomas Breen photos
294-302 State lot, now under new ownership.
Joe Cohen: Lucrative flip.
A Boston developer purchased a Ninth Square surface lot for $2.5 million — vowing to follow the previous owner’s plans to build a six-story, 60-unit apartment building.
That property swap was one of the city’s latest land deals.
According to the city land records database, on April 29, Downtown East LLC sold the joint surface parking lots at 294 State St. and 300 State St. to BC State Street LLC for $2.5 million.
Downtown East LLC is a holding company owned by East River Partners, a real estate investment firm run by Greenwich developer (and New Haven native) Joseph Cohen and by his New York City-based business partner Jody Kriss.
BC State Street LLC is owned by the Boston-based affordable housing development and property management company Beacon Communities.
East River Partners first purchased the two lots in 2005 for a combined sum of $412,949 — over $2 million less than they sold it for late last month. The city last appraised the two properties as worth a total of $579,900.
The sale comes one year after Beacon purchased the nearby 335-unit, mixed-use Residences at Ninth Square for $65.2 million.
Beacon Communities CEO Dara Kovel (pictured) told the Independent Monday afternoon that her company plans to build a new affordable apartment complex atop the 0.21-acre State Street surface parking lots located in between Chapel and Crown Streets.
She said the planned new affordable residential building will likely match the size and scale of the six-story, 60-unit apartment building that Cohen and Kriss had planned to build at that same site.
Cohen won Board of Zoning Appeals approval in July 2018 to allow 19 on-site parking spaces where 39 are required at that location. And in December 2018, he won site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to build the new 60-unit complex.
In July 2018, Cohen told the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team that the mix of studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, and four-bedrooms planned for the vacant site would have “mid-price” rents, falling somewhere in between nearby affordable and luxury rental projects.
Kovel said on Monday that what Beacon plans to build on the site will consist primarily of affordable-rate apartments. She said “the final mix will depend on financial analysis and state policy.”
She said her company plans to use Cohen’s previously City Plan Commission-approved site plan, which does not expire until December 2023.
And she said Beacon will apply to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) in November for 9 percent tax credit funding for the planned affordable project.
Kovel said she had been “aware that the site had been on the market on and off for the last several years.”
“As we began to think about our next business venture, we thought that that parking lot on State Street” represented a prime opportunity to build “a new affordable housing development at that location,” she said
Kovel said the site struck Beacon as a perfect location for its next local venture because of its proximity to Beacon’s Residences at Ninth Square complex and because it is right across the street from the State Street train station.
She said that Beacon is currently working with the city’s economic development and city plan teams to talk through the developers’ final prospective design and development proposals for the site.
“We think it’s aligned with the city’s goals and the state’s goals around transit-oriented development,” she said.
At Residences at Ninth Square complex, meanwhile, Beacon is over “80 percent complete” with the masonry repair, new roof construction, common area upgrades, mechanical equipment replacement, and historic window rehabilitation it has been working on for the past year.
She said Beacon’s construction schedule for the site suffered a “little bit of a delay” because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Our goal is to be done with construction by the fall.” She said that Beacon also plans to have two new commercial tenants open their doors at the Residences at Ninth Square complex in the not-too-distant future.
She added that Beacon’s property management team has moved nearly all of their work online since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak in March. Tenants have been paying rent electronically. Maintenance workers have been cleaning the building on a daily basis.
“This is an important step related to the overall revitalization of the Ninth Square,” city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli told the Independent by email Monday. “With Beacon’s prior investment in the district, you are seeing the renovation work down Orange Street and George Street and new vitality with first floor retail. As you know from their prior projects, the team will provide opportunities for community input and have a strong focus on inclusion, both on the housing side and in the complementary land use.”
Cohen was asked for a comment Monday on why he decided to sell the State Street lot. “It was the right people to sell to,” he told the Independent, “and the right time to sell.”
The multi-million-dollar vacant lot sale comes roughly a year after his company sold the Cambridge Arms apartment building at 32 High St., the Oxford apartment building at 36 High St., and an adjacent two-family house at 38 High St. for $25.15 million to a White Plains, N.Y.-based investor. Cohen also received City Plan Commission approval in November 2018 to convert office space on Chapel Street into 29 market-rate apartments.
In other recent property sales, on May 12, Calle 111 LLC, a holding company owned by Sergio Spodek of DMB Properties, purchased the 11-unit, mixed residential-commercial building at 124 Temple St. (pictured) for $3.6 million from the First Bank of Greenwich.
The city last appraised the downtown building as worth $1,797,600.
City Assessor photo
104 Cherry Ann St.
And affiliates of the local mega-landlord Mandy Management spent nearly $1.455 million buying four buildings containing 13 different apartments in Newhallville, Cedar Hill, and the Hill.
On May 5, the Mandy-affiliate Bentzy II LLC purchased the six-unit apartment complex at 104 Cherry Ann St. for $825,000 from 240 North St LLC. The complex last sold for $515,000 in 2015, and the city last appraised it as worth $636,700.
On May 4, the Mandy-affiliate Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the three-family house at 578 Howard Ave. for $270,000 from ST Bari Capital New Haven 1 LLC, a holding company owned by Hugo Miura. The property last sold for $167,000 in 2017, and the city last appraised it as worth $158,900.
Also on May 4, the Mandy-affiliate Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the three-family house at 603 Howard Ave. for $270,000 from ST Bari Capital New Haven 1 LLC, a holding company owned by Hugo Miura. The property last sold for $260,000 in 2018, and the city last appraised it as worth $258,500.
And on April 27, the Mandy-affiliate Real Estate Group XIV LLC purchased the single-family house at 150 Cedar Hill Ave. from the Native American Corporation for $90,000. The city last appraised the building as worth $105,700.
Previous property sale coverage:
• Mandy Picks Up 10 Houses For $2.2M
• ConnCAT Buys Dixwell Clinic Building
• City Buys Walt’s Cleaners For Dixwell Plan
• 2nd Try Adds $1M To Purchase Price
• Investors Drop $1.1M On East Side Condos
• Out-Of-Town Builder Buys Park St. Block For $4.7M
• Ocean Spends $1.45M On 7 Houses
• 66 Norton Sells For $1.46M
• Mandy’s Buying Spree Tops $16.1M
• “Rt. 34 West” Hotel Site Sold For $2.8M
• Spinnaker Flips Comcast Project For $14.6M
• Sherman Medical Building Sells For $2.7M
• Pike, Mandy Spend $2M+ In Latest Buys
• 200+ Apartments Planned At Empty Eyesore
• Annex Apartments Sold For $3.95M
• Mill River Office Building Sold For $4.65M
• Local Landlords, Albertus Magnus Expand
• Mandy Buys Warehouse For $1.6M
• Pike Collects $890K On Wooster Sq. Sales
• Springside Apartments Sell For $3.2M
• Family Dollar Sells For 1.8M Dollars
• Pike Sells 2 Buildings To Yale For $3.8M
• Mansion Sells For Only $1.45M
• Landlord Tops 340 Units
• High Street Apts Sell For $25M+
• St. Michael’s School Sold, For Apartments
• Ocean Management Acquires Perrotti Westville Properties
• Paris Realty Picks Up 6 Q Meadows Condos
• Landlord Boosts West River Condo Holdings
• $21 Million Changes Hands In 2 Days
• 50 Factory Jobs Coming To Fair Haven
• Brendan Towers Sold For $6M+
• Investors Drop $917K On West Side Condos
• Mandy’s 2018 Buying Spree Nears $13M
• Mandy Empire Buys Up The Block
• Roots Planted In Newhallville
• Latest Sales: Mandy Buying Spree Continues
• Latest Sales: Mandy Expands In City Point
• Latest Sales: East Rock Home Buy Tops $1M
• Latest Deals: Beulah’s 5th Rehab On Block
• Latest Sales: NHR Sheds Small To Focus Big
• Latest Sales: Mandy Buys In Heights
• Home Sale Price Doubles In 13 Years