A major Downtown Brooklyn landlord is three steps closer to securing near-total control of an entire block.
The Laboz family’s United American Land has snapped up a trio of parcels near the corner of Jay and Willoughby streets for $14.5 million, according to deeds that appeared in the city register Friday.
With the transaction, the developer appears to control 16 of the 21 lots that make up the trapezoidal block, which is also bounded by Fulton and Lawrence streets, according to a Crain’s analysis. In the area, low-slung commercial sites have been giving way to soaring residential towers amid a building boom.
Slowly but steadily in the decades that followed, the firm added to its assemblage, though with increasing frequency in recent years, the analysis shows. In 2018 the developer snapped up 144 Lawrence St., a 4-story tenement-style structure that once contained a barber shop, for $2.2 million. The same year also saw it purchase 465 Fulton St., a sneaker store turned GameStop branch, according to the register.
Then in 2021 came the purchase of 455 Fulton, the site of a pawn shop, for $3.5 million. That was followed in 2023 by the company’s pickup of 56 Willoughby, home to a series of restaurants, for $6.3 million, deeds show.
Though the handful of sites not controlled by the developer are relatively small, there is a notable exception: 150 Lawrence. It contained a Chinese-restaurant-anchored commercial building before Brooklyn builder Solomon Schwimmer bought it in 2023 for $22.5 million and redeveloped it as Lawrence Tower. The 25-story luxury high-rise, which opened this month, offers studios starting at $3,200, based on StreetEasy data.
Similar residential high-rises nearby include 55 Willoughby, a 43-story, 293-unit under-construction tower from developer Lonicera Partners that’s supposed to open this year.
Credit: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/united-american-land-buys-three-downtown-brooklyn-sites
Via NYguy SSP