MetLife pays $68.1M to Clarion Partners for two rentals in Williamsburg

MetLife paid $68.1 million to Clarion Partners for two rental buildings in Williamsburg in two separate transactions.

In the larger, MetLife through the entity Comref Williamsburg Lofts LLC paid $40.3 million to Clarion Partners through the entity Clpf – 44 Berry, L.P. for the 42-unit rental condo at 44 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and the retail condo at 44 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The deal closed on January 25, 2023 and was recorded on February 2, 2023. The two properties have 44,000 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $915 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Clarion Partners was Katie Vaz. The signatory for MetLife was Louis M. Kruk. Louis Kruk is Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Managed Accounts  The Real Deal reported on the sale last week.

In the second, MetLife through the entity Comref Williamsburg Lofts LLC paid $27.8 million to Clarion Partners through the entity Clpf – Printhouse Lofts, LLC for 36-unit residential elevator building (D5) at 139 North 10th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The deal closed on January 25, 2023 and was recorded on February 2, 2023.The property has 42,500 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $654 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.) The seller bought the property on November 6, 2014, for $30.5 million.

Because multiple properties have been transacted, some of the following sections will follow the property with the largest assessed value, which in this case, is the property on 44 Berry Street.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer MetLife had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Clarion Partners had not purchased any other properties and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $155 million over the same time period.

The property

The 44 Berry Street parcel has a total lot size of 33,400 square feet. The property has a J-51 exemption that started in 2011 and expires in 2025. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The block

On the tax block of 44 Berry Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the five commercial properties representing 149,425 square feet of the 240,232 square feet. The identified owner is LCOR.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 76 percent of the 196,232 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with industrial buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Clarion Partners owned at least three commercial properties in New York City with 1,943,026 square feet and a city-determined market value of $638.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $30 million in debt, borrowed from Allianz Life Insurance Company Of North America. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 98 percent of the 1,943,026 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 2 percent of the space. The bulk, or 98 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 2 percent of the space.

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