Eastern Consolidated Properties completes three retail transactions in Manhattan. (Retail New York).

Continuing its long history of selling retail properties throughout New York, Eastern Consolidated Properties has recently completed several sales of retail type investment grade properties previously owned by Sterling Equities. In these most recent transactions, the properties were located in prime areas of both the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In each sale, Eastern's team, headed by company vice chairman, Brian Ezratty, was retained as the exclusive agent for the seller and also procured the ultimate purchasers.

The cooperative corporation that owns the residential building on this Upper East Side corner at 76th Street also owns the fee interest in 3,450-SF retail condo-minimum on the property's ground floor. In 1984 the coop net leased the retail component for 36 years under a master lease expiring in the year 2020.

After a long contract period due to local bureaucracy and C of O issues, which at times involved great patience and professionalism on the part of both buyer and seller, the sale of the remaining term of the master leasehold closed in January. The purchaser will benefit from increases built into existing leases and then be able to achieve significantly higher market rents as individual subleases expire over the next two to three years.

Meanwhile, across town on West 62nd Street in the residential tower known as the Allegro, two blocks north of Related's Columbus Circle development, Eastern was brought in to sell the entire retail component consisting of two separate condominium units: the retail portion and the movie theater. Both units were under the same ownership when Eastern began marketing them as a package.

According to Ezratty, "We understood that the units served different functions with the retail portion occupying over 100 feet of prime Broadway frontage and the southwest corner of 62nd Street, and the theater occupying primarily lower level space with an entrance on Broadway. After a period of time out in the market, it became clear that the units should be marketed to different prospective purchasers." Shortly thereafter, the 7,746 SF retail unit with approximately 5,700 SF at street level sold for $9.725 million and the 7,244 SF theater space sold for $3.1 million. Both purchasers were local professionals which had 103 tax exchange requirements.

In a separate transaction, Eastern was hired to sell the retail condominium and two adjacent residential properties with retail components at Sterling Plaza on Second Avenue between East 49th and 50th Streets. Once again the condominium unit comprises the entire retail portion of a luxury apartment tower and the two smaller buildings are part of what was the original development site when Sterling built the tower back in the early 1980's. The package of properties is currently under contract to an Eastern Consolidated customer, procured by the firm's broker Ety Lee.