Shel Capital Buys Gowanus Apartments at 237 11th Street for $69M

Shel Capital and Bluestone Investments purchased a 105-unit residential building in Gowanus, Brooklyn, for $68.5 million, according to city records made public Wednesday.

Shel, through the entity Eleventh-SB, bought the 12-story property at 237 11th Street from Trinity Place Holdings, which used the entity 470 4th Avenue Fee Owner, records show. The sales price was $12.7 million less than what Trinity paid for the apartments in 2018.

Rony Kravel, principal at Shel, signed for the buyer, while Daniel Bartok, a director of Trinity Place, signed for the seller, according to records. PincusCo first reported the news.

Kravel said in a statement that his group is “strong believers in the New York rental market.”

JLL (JLL) Multifamily provided the $44.5 million Freddie Mac loan for Bluestone and Shell to acquire the Gowanus building.

Rob Hinckley and Steven Rutman of JLL led the sale, while the debt advisory was led by JLL’s Michael Shmuely, Michael Zaremski, Robert Tonnessen and John Flynn.

Flynn said that Brooklyn’s multifamily market “continues to outperform the broader U.S.” from an investment sales perspective, and that it is one of the more popular places in the nation to live.

Last year, Brooklyn closed $7.8 billion in sales, an increase of 51 percent in total dollar volume from 2023, while the total volume of property transfers reached 1,198 transactions, a 12 percent increase over the previous year. 

JLL’s Shmuely said 237 11th Street is a rent-regulated property that carries “significant mark-to-market potential. 

“This runway for return with a strong new sponsor motivated the lender to provide very attractive pricing and structure,” he added. 

Trinity Place bought the apartment building on the corner of 11th Street and Fourth Avenue, called 237 Eleventh, in May 2018 for $81.2 million, property records show.

In June 2021, Trinity Place secured a $60 million debt package from Natixis to refinance the multifamily property, Commercial Observer reported at the time.

A spokesperson for Trinity Place did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 11th Street building features 105 newly renovated apartments and ground-floor retail space, as well as a residential courtyard, roof deck, exercise facility, package center and parking garage. Apartments at the property range between $2,628 per month for a studio and $6,498 per month for a two-bedroom, according to StreetEasy.

It’s unclear what Shel’s exact plans are for the building, but the investment firm also bought a four-building multifamily portfolio in the East Village in 2021 along with Bluestone Investments for $51.5 million, The Real Deal reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com. Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.