Davidson and Blumberg of Besen sell two-story, 8,150 s/f retail property; Located at 172-174 Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights

Besen & Associates brokered the sale of 172-174 Montague St. located in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. The transaction amounted to $12 million and was sold by the team of David Davidson and Lynda Blumberg. The property is a two-story, 8,150 s/f retail building containing two stores, constructed in 1925. It occupies 50 ft. of frontage on Montague St. and is built 95 ft. deep. Tenants include a Hallmark store and a pub, with leases expiring by July 2013. It is situated in the Downtown Brooklyn special district, under the C5-2/DB zoning designation. With a maximum allowable F.A.R. of 12, the property offers significant air rights with up to 60,000 buildable s/f. "The owner was very shrewd," said Davidson, who represented the seller. "He resisted the temptation to sell his air rights on several occasions after receiving unsolicited offers." In 1999, a 34-story rental building was constructed next door at 180 Montague St. It was subsequently sold in 2006 to Archstone Smith, a residential REIT, for $101 million. Montague St. is one of the most highly trafficked streets in the borough of Brooklyn, with both national and local retailers. It is within a hub of public transportation and in vicinity of the Fulton Mall, court house, and downtown business district. The seller, a private investor, had at one time owned the Hallmark franchise in the building and later subleased it to collect rent instead. It was sold to a local developer who plans to build on the site in the future. After years of being courted by sales brokers, he decided the time was right to sell. The price of $12 million equates to a price per buildable foot of $200, which is considered high for Brooklyn where land sales have recently averaged closed to $120 per foot. Yet is still not quite that of Manhattan, where development sites have been selling for numbers upward of $300 per buildable s/f in 2012. Besen & Associates is a leading investment sales brokerage founded in 1988. It is consistently ranked a top performer by transaction volume. Besen offers deep knowledge and sophisticated analytical tools to handle all facets of commercial real estate transactions including sales, re-positioning, financing, or lease negotiations. Working with a range of investors from single-property owners to institutional and private equity investors, Besen customizes appropriate solutions for all of its clients. For more information, visit http://www.besenassociates.com.