170 North 5th Street
Urban American, the owner and manager of some 12,000 apartments in the metropolitan area, is on the hunt for distressed properties after turning around one Brooklyn rental building.
Within a month of bringing 170 North 5th Street in Williamsburg to market, James Eisenberg, president of UA Development and Construction Corp, said the 16-unit building was now fully occupied.
The project was originally planned as a condominium called The Williams. However, the previous owner defaulted on its loan and the building sat in limbo for over a year.
Urban American purchased the defaulted loan and was able to move into the role of developer and complete the project.
“The building was very well designed by the architects and the work completed by the time we got there was pretty good,” said Eisenberg. “We were able to keep the existing contractors on the job and stick close to the original plans, which prevented a lot of headaches.
JAMES EISENBERG
“Design wasn’t an issue here, the project just needed quick decisions and execution to get it back on track.”
Urban American decided to put the units on the market as rentals rather than condominiums and the consumer response was immediate.
“Corcoran and our leasing staff did an amazing job and fully leased up the building in under a month,” said Eisenberg.
“There is really a lot of pent-up demand in the neighborhood and this area has really come into its own as a very desirable place to live. We hit all of our targets and then some. We honed our approach to this type of product and are aggressively seeking out more opportunities like this in the future.”
?
