They want to take Flatbush to new heights.
Developers are moving forward with a glitzy, staircase-shaped 23-story tower at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Albermarle Road. The developer admits the building will stick out among area the area’s predominantly one- to six-story structures, but said it is going to be a boon neighborhood.
“It’s not going to fit in,” said developer Eli Karp, who heads luxury condo developer Hello Living. “No matter what I build, it would never fit in. I’m just going to make sure it helps with the neighborhood.”
The project will contain 153 apartments divided between condos and market-rate rentals, he said. There will also be a two-story “community facility” at the building’s base, but Karp said he hasn’t inked any leases. He would like to see an urgent care center but has also been talking with a nearby college about leasing the space for dormitories, he said.
Karp is financing the project through a “buyers’ club.” He has been selling individual units in the Big Ben-sized project to investors ahead of breaking ground — which he expects to do in two to three weeks, he said. Once the building is up, Karp plans to buy the units back from investors at market rate, which should exceed investors’ initial outlay and give them a tidy return, he said.
Karp wants investors to pony up between $460,000 and $700,000 for two-bedroom units — which comprise a majority of the building’s apartments — and between $330,000 and $403,000 for one-bedroom digs, according to real estate blog Yimby.
So far, 16 investors have approached Karp, he said.
The developer bought the lot for a little more than $13 million last year and tried to sell it months later before eventually opting to finance through the buyers’ club.
Karp has previously had trouble with investors. In 2008, backers from Borough Park and Austria sued him over a multi-building condo development in Prospect Heights, claiming Karp did not accurately project building costs, exceeded his budget, and stole at least $170,000, but Karp claimed investors were trying to force the project into foreclosure so they could buy it on the cheap. Investors claimed Karp sold units in the Prospect Heights developments without backers’ consent and named several tenants as defendants in an attempt to claw back the apartments, creating major headaches for condo-owners, the New York Times reported. A settlement included Karp’s ouster from the project, the Daily News reported.
Using the buyer’s club model spreads out the investment among more backers, lowering the chances a litigious financier could bring the project to a halt, Karp said.
“This is exactly the reason I went the other direction with smaller investors,” he said.
