75 MacDonough Street_1

It turns out Australian investment firm Dixon is the purchaser of not just one but all four of the recent record-breaking sales in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights. Dixon is also in contract to purchase 75 Macdonough Street, above, a notable and landmarked multifamily apartment building in Bed Stuy with a good deal of interior detail still intact.

It was Dixon who broke the all-time Bed Stuy record for a townhouse by paying $2,250,000 for 22 Arlington Place last week. The house is less than 16 feet wide but has a brand-new, high-end renovation and is dripping with original 19th century detail. Another house on the block was featured in the Spike Lee movie “Crooklyn.”

It was also Dixon who paid $2,100,000 earlier this month for 196 Hancock, a house that attracted a lot of media attention in March when the flipper who bought it for $1,200,000 from an estate listed it for $1,850,000 three days later.

It was also Dixon who paid the renovated-house price of $1,500,000 for an unrenovated house with oodles of original detail at 698 St. Marks in Crown Heights earlier this month.

And of course, as we already reported, Dixon made a similar purchase at 259 Decatur Street in May, an architecturally distinguished house with lavish detail in poor condition.

And let’s not forget 36 Rutland Road, a house on a double lot that set the townhouse record for Prospect Lefferts Gardens when Dixon purchased it for $1,850,000 in January.

Meanwhile, over at 75 Macdonough Street, Dixon is purchasing in a joint venture with another unnamed company; Dixon’s US Masters Fund “is providing the majority of the equity,” Managing Director and CEO of Dixon Leasing Alan Dixon explained. We published photos of the building interior in February when it was for sale for $3,200,000. It was also a Building of the Day in 2010. The Renaissance Revival building looks like an Italian palazzo and was designed by architect William Debus.

“We are very happy with all of the purchases and are extremely comfortable with the overall per square foot prices that we will be in each house for,” Alan Dixon told us. “Each property also provides some excellent synergies for the overall portfolio.  We are comfortable that these properties will provide excellent returns to our investors over the next 10 years as Brownstone Brooklyn continues to just get better and better!”

What effect do you think Dixon’s recent purchases will have on the market?

Photo by Marcus & Millichap

Update: The sale of 75 Macdonough Street closed Tuesday for $3,150,000.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. This is interesting stuff but every time I read that this group bought yet another property, the list of questions I have continues to increase – so here they go…. I don’t know enough about real estate besides wanting a house for myself so some of these questions are amateur-ish in nature. What’s the exit strategy for this investor? Sell all the properties in 10 years and return the money back to investors of the funds? As they are buying so many properties, when they are ready to sell the properties, would selling the properties at around the same time impact the value of the sale in a negative way? Although I am pretty sure that there is some sort of a lockup rule that investors of the funds sign up to, once it expires, if there is a run on the fund, would the value be impacted it even more? What does all this buying (at record setting prices) mean to the regular buyer who wants to buy a house in Bed Stuy/Crown Heights? Even if the individual buyer has the resources to buy one property, will she/he be buying into a pre-dominantly owner occupied neighborhood or mostly renters? I have more but this is enough for now. Thanks in advance.