Thomas Breen photo
1142 Chapel St.
The local real estate giant Pike International sold two downtown buildings to Yale University — including a vacant former Chapel Street pawn shop with a tragic history — in the city’s latest property transactions.
According to the city’s property record database, on June 4, 1142 Chapel LLC, a holding company owned by Pike founder Shmully Hecht, sold the two-story, retail-office building at 1142 Chapel St. and the three-story, retail-residential building at 166 York St. to Yale University for $10, the price listed on the warranty deed. The real price was larger, based on a look at the conveyance tax recorded for the transaction.
The local conveyance tax amount paid according to the warranty was $19,000. Since the city’s conveyance tax is 0.5 percent, that puts the actual transaction amount at $3.8 million. Not $10, as listed in the body of the warranty.
The three-unit, mixed-use York Street property currently houses the York Street Noodle House restaurant on its ground floor, while the Chapel Street building is currently vacant — and has been so for decades.
Hecht’s company bought the two downtown buildings and a nearby surface lot at 169 Park St. for $2.3 million in 2016. The city last appraised the 166 York parcel as worth $543,900 and the 1142 Chapel as worth $442,600, according to the city assessor’s database.
Yale University spokesperson declined to comment on the university’s plans for these two newly acquired buildings.
“We don’t have any announcements yet on the future use of the properties,” he said in an email.
166 York St.
Hecht similarly declined to comment on why his company decided to sell these properties to the university, or on what his intentions for the buildings may have been when he first purcahsed them three years ago.
“The Pike International LLC managed portfolio is the largest provider of luxury housing in downtown New Haven,” he wrote in an email. “We are committed to the revitalization and historic preservation of New Haven. Over the past twenty years we have fully renovated over 150 buildings with modern architectural upgrades, whilst preserving the charm of the Elm City. We are proud of our superb customer service, and personal attention to the needs and wants of our residents and commercial clients. Pike International does not comment on its dealings with Yale University.”
When Pike purchased the 1142 Chapel St. building in 2016, the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary dived deep into the tragic backstory of that building, which at that point had been empty for 24 years. The building used to house a jewelry store, a design facility, and a pawn shop, but suffered from four fires between the 1970s and early 1990s, with the most recent taking place in 1992.
A graffiti-tagged Pike advertisement at 1142 Chapel.
That same year, she wrote, a 33-year-old New Haven firefighter named Tom Kelly suffered a traumatic brain injury when “he fell through an uncovered 30-foot air shaft that was part of a second-story addition at 1142 Chapel St.” The owners of the building subsequently pleaded no contest to 48 building and fire code violations in city housing court in 1994 and were sentenced to two years probation and 400 hours of community service, according to the Register article.
In other recent property transactions, 640 Prospect LLC, another holding company owned by Pike, purchased the two-story, single-family Prospect Hill house at 630 Prospect St. for $305,000 from Joanna Wang on June 10. The house last sold for $280,000 in 2005, and was last appraised by the city as worth $281,700.
On June 11 in East Rock, August Muench-Nasrallah and Laura Salah Muench-Nasrallah purchased the two-and-a-quarter story, single-family house at 195 Everit St. for $890,000 from Tina Lu and Stuart Semmel. The house last sold for $755,000 in 2008, and was last appraised by the city as worth $654,300.
On May 3 in Newhallville, K&S Real Estate LLC, a holding company owned by Kimberly Gliha and Shawn Gliha, bought the two-family home at 45-47 Bassett St. for $155,000 from Anthony Carrano. The two-story building last sold for $209,000 in 2005, and was last appraised by the city as worth $131,700.
On May 29 in Fair Haven, GPG CT LLC, a holding company owned by Anthony Vueti and Claudia Vueti, purchased the three-story, three-family house at 12 Saltonstall Ave. for $113,000 from Helen Gyamfi. The house last sold for $96,000 in 2001, and was last appraised by the city as worth $124,600.
And on June 5 in Quinnipiac Meadows, Gan Eden Chadash LLC, a holding company owned by local developer Mendy Paris, purchased the condo at 1423 Quinnipiac Ave., Unit 502 from Michael Vitale for $46,000. The condo last sold for $50,000 in 2014, and the city last appraised the unit as worth $59,300. The condo is Paris’s seventh acquisition in the Q Meadows condo complex in recent months.
Previous property sale coverage:
• Mansion Sells For Only $1.45M
• Landlord Tops 340 Units
• High Street Apts Sell For $25M+
• St. Michael’s School Sold, For Apartments
• Ocean Management Acquires Perrotti Westville Properties
• Paris Realty Picks Up 6 Q Meadows Condos
• Landlord Boosts West River Condo Holdings
• $21 Million Changes Hands In 2 Days
• 50 Factory Jobs Coming To Fair Haven
• Brendan Towers Sold For $6M+
• Investors Drop $917K On West Side Condos
• Mandy’s 2018 Buying Spree Nears $13M
• Mandy Empire Buys Up The Block
• Roots Planted In Newhallville
• Latest Sales: Mandy Buying Spree Continues
• Latest Sales: Mandy Expands In City Point
• Latest Sales: East Rock Home Buy Tops $1M
• Latest Deals: Beulah’s 5th Rehab On Block
• Latest Sales: NHR Sheds Small To Focus Big
• Latest Sales: Mandy Buys In Heights
• Home Sale Price Doubles In 13 Years
I dont trust Pike and I dont trust Yale. There is more to this story.