Housing Nonprofits Pick Up Bronx Building for $24M

A newly built seven-story building at 4427 White Plains Road in the Bronx changed hands and will bring 59 low-income units to the Wakefield neighborhood.

A housing development fund corporation (HDFC) linked to Bronx-based nonprofits VIP Community Services and Better Haven bought the building from a limited liability company connected to HKS Real Estate Advisors and SKF Development for $23.6 million, according to property records made public Tuesday.

HKS Principal and Founding Partner Ayush Kapahi, who signed the deal to sell the property on July 26, and a representative for SKF did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for VIP Community Services and Better Haven co-Executive Director Tahisha Lue-Hing, who signed the deal for the buyer, did not respond to requests for comment.

VIP Community Services, a 50-year-old behavioral health and housing services nonprofit headquartered at 770 East 176th Street in the Bronx, launched an HDFC in May that will manage the newly constructed building and sublease its units to low-income families, according to a contract signed the same day the property traded hands. 

HKS and Kim Tasher’s SKF bought the development site directly in front of the last stop of the 5 Train for $2.6 million in 2018, according to property records.

They got to work the following year demolishing the three-story building that previously occupied the lot and building a new 46,640-square-foot property in its place, according to city Department of Buildings permits and New York YIMBY.

It’s unclear how Better Haven, a homeless services provider that started earlier this year, is collaborating with VIP to run the HDFC. It’s also unclear if brokers were involved in the deal.

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.