Red Hook

Viva Italia — in Red Hook

Eye On Real Estate: Est4te Four, a developer from Milan, is buying its fourth neighborhood site

July 2, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
This is a condo conversion at 160 Imlay St., one of four Red Hook properties snapped up by developer Est4te Four.
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Spending spree! For Red Hook real estate.

Est4te Four, the chi-chi developer from Milan that’s turning iconic 160 Imlay St. into condos, is buying a fourth development site in the neighborhood, Eye on Real Estate has learned.

City Finance Department records identify the firm’s new acquisition as 62 Ferris St. — a massive parking lot with frontage on Wolcott and Sullivan streets where Haddad film-production trucks are parked — combined with neighboring 219 Sullivan St., which has jaw-dropping waterfront views of Lower Manhattan skyscrapers.

An LLC whose president is Est4te Four executive Stefano Marciano paid a $1.6 million down payment for the two properties, according to a memorandum of contract signed in January and recorded in April.

The sale contract stipulates that the closing date will be no later than Jan. 5, 2015.

Before locking up this prime site, Est4te Four (no, that’s not a typo — that’s how the developer’s name is spelled) had already snagged more than 1 million square feet of industrial properties in the beloved waterfront neighborhood, as Eye on Real Estate previously reported.

The firm is known for the makeover of Milan’s Zona Tortona, a once-raggedy warehouse area it turned into a hot fashion district where big-name designers have offices, showrooms and studios. It currently has offices in West Hollywood and London.

The seller of the 62 Ferris St. property is 1989 Realty Corp., whose president is Louis Iovine, Finance Department records indicate. That property had been listed at a $22 million asking price, according to sale broker Realty Collective’s website. Iovine is a Red Hook landlord who is selling a neighboring property — see related story.

Realty Collective founder Victoria Hagman told Eye on Real Estate she signed a non-disclosure agreement and can’t talk about 62 Ferris.

(By the way, so there’s no confusion, the memorandum of contract refers to the Ferris Street property as 44 Ferris St. The Realty Collective sale offering refers to it as 62 Ferris St. The lot is so big that its complete address is 44-62 Ferris St.)

Marciano, the Est4te Four executive, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

The seller of 219 Sullivan St. is NBB Realty Corp., whose president is Chaim Babad, the memorandum of contract indicates. Babad is a landlord with holdings in the West Village and Brooklyn.

The 62 Ferris-219 Sullivan site, which is not mentioned on Est4te Four’s website, is right across the street from one that is, namely 68 Ferris St.

Its plans for the 68 Ferris site, as Eye on Real Estate previously reported, include revamping existing buildings and constructing new buildings “to house the creative worlds, offices for digital media and possibly a hotel,” the firm’s website indicates.

In early June, the developer launched its long-awaited website for marketing condos at 160 Imlay St., a stunning but decrepit former New York Dock Co. building.

Construction crews are busily working behind heavy shrouding that covers the skeleton of the century-old cast-in-place concrete building, for which previous owners Bruce Batkin and Bruce Federman won a much-contested residential variance prior to its $25.1 million purchase in 2012 by Est4te Four.

The developer expects to complete the residential conversion in summer 2016.

Douglas Elliman’s Patty LaRocco is the broker for the project — which will have apartments with 12-to-16-foot ceilings, a spiffy fitness center, a nifty rooftop deck and rear garden and 24-hour doorman.

Est4te Four also has redevelopment plans for a red-painted brick industrial complex at 202 Coffey St., which it intends to turn into a “global hub for creativity, contemporary art galleries, fashion, design and events,” according to its website.

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