442-decatur-street-071714

Dixon is no longer buying only houses in Brooklyn but has moved into large apartment buildings in a huge way, snapping up at least $40,000,000 worth of commercial property in Brooklyn in one month, according to public records and sources.

In June, working with partner Excelsior Equities, Dixon acquired 442-446 Decatur Street, pictured above, 263-265 Linden Street, 255-261 Linden Street, 770 St. Marks Avenue, 637 St. Marks Avenue, 24-30 Rogers Avenue, and 75 MacDonough Street, all in Bed Stuy, Bushwick and Crown Heights.

The change in strategy allows Dixon to rapidly increase the scale of its operations, to buy at a bigger discount, and will also give the company cash flow to service debt, a source who preferred to remain anonymous told us. “If they buy bigger properties, it gives them more scale and they can get a discount due to rent stabilization,” he said.

One of the sellers of the commercial properties in Crown Heights, John Weinberger, is in the final stages of selling all his Brooklyn properties, a total of more than 3,000 units, another source told us.

Dixon and partner Excelsior Equities acquired 442-446 Decatur Street for $5,900,000; 263-265 Linden Street for $6,750,000; 255-261 Linden Street for $6,750,000; and 75 MacDonough Street for $3,150,000. The Crown Heights properties at 770 St. Marks Avenue, 637 St. Marks Avenue, and 24-30 Rogers Avenue traded for $25,000,000, according to our sources and The Real Deal. That sale has not yet hit public records.

“We are very excited about Brooklyn, and our previous experience in Hudson County has found that a combination of prewar rent stabilized apartment blocks and one-to-four-family properties works really well,” Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Dixon Advisory USA Alan Dixon told us. “In Hudson Country we have 21 apartment buildings, primarily in West New York and Union City. In those buildings, we are partnered with Urban American and Excelsior Equities, who do the management on the properties.”

The Real Deal was the first to report on the purchase of the Crown Heights properties, with a story yesterday. We reported on the sale of 75 MacDonough last month.

Dixon Coverage [Brownstoner]
Photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. I don’t think buyouts are bad merely because they don’t permit the tenant to rent or buy something comparable. If anything, I think a tenant should use a buyout as a means of taking the time to transition out of living in NYC. Considering the $150k example, budgeted carefully, the buyout might pay rent on a new place for a few years, with some to spare. Without having to pay rent, that time can be spent in skill development.

  2. I’m not ignoring that people can be taken advantage of, but that unfortunately is capitalism…Even between two sophisticated parties one side will get a better deal. Absent harrasment and other illegal tactics, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt that they are smart enough to make the best decision for themselves. Restricting a persons ability to enter into a contract because they “might” not work out well for them seems absured to me. In my opinion, a more fair solution would be to require LL to provide sometype of standard disclosure to the person being bought out. “PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR HOME IN EXCHANGE FOR A CHUNK OF CASH THAT 99% OF PEOPLE WILL NEVER RECIEIVE IN A ONE TIME PAYMENT AND THAT CASH MAY OR MAY NOT LAST YOU THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.” Sarcasism aside, that is how the stock market deals with the issue of large companies dealing with potentially unsophisticated participants. But in the end we shouldn’t assume people are dumb and over protect them. Especially in this case, where the real estate information needed to avoid not being taken advantage of is widely available with minimal effort needed to obtain it.

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