Chinese Investors Buy Large Abandoned Gravesend Development Site for $18.5 Million

A tipster tells us that a group of Chinese investors paid $18,500,000 for a big piece of property at 2300 Cropsey Avenue in Gravesend at a state foreclosure auction yesterday. The 45,688-square-foot property, which is sandwiched between Cropsey and Bay Parkway at 23rd Avenue, currently houses a six-story building with a demolished interior that’s zoned as a nursing home. The existing building is 85,619 square feet.

However, an old listing from Massey Knakal notes that the previous owner had acquired additional air rights to construct a 30-story mixed-use development with 264 apartments, 81,378 square feet of community space and an underground parking garage. With the new air rights, the site can hold a new development of up to 275,000 square feet.

The site’s previous owner was Russian developer Alexander Gurevich, whom then-Attorney General Cuomo banned from selling condos and co-ops in New York State for three years in 2010, The Real Deal reported last year. When plans for the massive development didn’t materialize, Gurevich defaulted on his construction loans and mortgage to the tune of $17,030,000.

After fees and penalties, the lien on the property is $27,024,325, according to foreclosure documents. The defaulted mortgage, once held by Lehman Brothers, is now held by a Swedish bank that took over dozens of former Lehman mortgages. The last time we wrote about 2300 Cropsey was in 2010, when we highlighted it for having the most DOB violations.

DOB’s Most Violated? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Image by Massey Knakal