South Bronx Building Value Doubles in Recent Sale
By Terence Cullen June 26, 2015 12:27 pm
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An investor has paid $1.8 million for a mixed-use Bronx building, hoping to capitalize on a swath of development in the southern portion of the borough, Commercial Observer has learned.
Arkadia Property Group closed Wednesday on its purchase of 51 Bruckner Boulevard, a four-story building with 700 square feet of retail space, according to Ariel Property Advisors. The price tag is double the $900,000 price the building last traded hands for in late 2007. Ariel declined to provide the seller’s identity, but the owner is listed in property records as Al Dog Enterprises.
Brokers in the deal believe that price jump is sparked by development in the South Bronx, particularly with FreshDirect’s new 500,000-square-foot facility underway in Mott Haven.
“[The buyer is] looking to own a piece of real estate on what the area will be in five to 10 years from now,” said Jason Gold of Ariel Property Advisors, who represented both the buyer and seller with colleagues Michael Tortorici, Scot Hirschfield and Marko Agbaba. “You have new retail coming to the area, you have more coffee shops that are more hang-out areas.”
The retail space in 51 Bruckner Boulevard is currently empty. Mr. Gold said a tenant for that spot won’t likely be a laundromat or bodega synonymous with the Bronx, but a coffee shop or another hangout spot for young professionals relocating to the Bronx.
“That’s the type of tenancy that’s coming here,” Mr. Gold told CO. “You walk in it almost makes you feel like you’re in Manhattan.”
Above the retail are four market-rate rental apartments. There are two one-bedroom apartments on the second floor, with a two-bedroom apartment on each of the third and fourth floors.
