Trade Secrets! ‘Wealthy Family’ Buys Devonshire Retail Space
By William Alden July 27, 2010 8:22 pm
reprintsThe retail space on the ground floor of the Devonshire House, a prewar Greenwich Village beauty at 28 East 10th Street, has changed hands for $10.35 million. The buyer, according to broker Eric Anton, is “a very wealthy family here in New York.”
Eastern Consolidated represented the seller and, according to a release, “procured” the buyer, whose identity is “undisclosed.” Mr. Anton and Ron Solarz, both executive managing directors at Eastern Consolidated, worked with vice chairman Brian Ezratty and senior director Deborah Gutoff to broker the deal.
The 8,426-square-foot retail space is all leased up, and the new owner doesn’t plan on making any drastic changes. “It’s a pure investment,” Mr. Solarz said. The storefronts, which Ms. Gutoff called “local,” include Devonshire Optical, University Floral Design, Sunshine Cleaners, La Petite Coquette and Bagel Bob’s.
The seller was a partnership between the Cheshire Group and Sterling Equities, which together bought the building in December 2007, “a couple days before Christmas,” Mr. Anton said. Cheshire and Sterling converted the upstairs residential portion of the building from rentals to condos, which have been selling for an average of $1,850 a square foot.
Messrs. Solarz and Anton wouldn’t give the buyer’s identity, but Mr. Anton said it’s “one of the large New York real estate families.” Mr. Solarz added that the family has “a lot of experience in real estate.” Tantalizing!
