Real Estate Roundup: Hill Metal Scrapyard Sold For $1.3M

An international metal recycling company has purchased a Hill scrapyard that it has run and leased for the past nearly two decades, in one of the city’s latest property deals.

According to New Haven’s land records database, on Nov. 22, SMM New England Corporation bought the 4.06-acre industrial property at 808 Washington Ave. from Bixon Liquidation Corporation for $1.3 million.

The city last appraised the property, which includes a single 22,000 square-foot warehouse building and an expansive metal scrapyard near the West Haven border, as worth $1,576,600.

The new owner of the property is an affiliate of Sims Metal Management, an Australia-founded, New York-headquartered ​“world leading publicly listed metal recycler” that already runs a scrapyard off of Universal Drive in North Haven.

In a phone interview with the Independent, Sims Metal Management Operations Director Mike Kiwanis said that his company has been running the 808 Washington Ave. metal recycling site for the past 18 years.

“Nothing has changed,” he said about the recent property transaction. ​“This was just a buyout of the property at the end of a long-term lease.” 

He said that his company doesn’t plan to make any changes to the property or its operations now that Sims owns the site outright. ​“We’ve maintained the building over the past 18 years.” He said the Washington Avenue property ​“is in really good shape.”

And what exactly happens at this four-acre site?

“We’re a metal recycler. We do manual sorting” of copper and aluminum and stainless steel so that those goods can ultimately be melted down (off-site), recycled, and reused. The goal, he said, is to keep these metal products ​“out of the landfill.”

Sims’ website goes into further detail on how the international metal recycling business works.

“Our metals recycling operations are geographically diverse, with operations in five continents, including the United States, Australasia and the United Kingdom, comprising a network of processing facilities, many with deep-water port access, supported by an extensive network of feeder yards from which to source recyclable ferrous and non-ferrous metals,” the company’s website states. 

The company’s website continues: ​“Sims Metal buys ferrous metal from metal dealers, peddlers, auto wreckers, demolition firms and others who generate obsolete metal, and from manufacturers who generate industrial metal. We source non-ferrous metals from manufacturers, known as production offcuts, and from generators of electricity, telecommunication service providers, as well as others, who generate obsolete metal. Peddlers and metal dealers, who collect from a variety of sources, also deliver material directly to our facilities.”

Roundup: Mandy Buys Orange St. Retail-Apt Building For $1.55M

Other recent local property transactions included:

• On Dec. 1, a holding company controlled by Nick Jhilal of Easton bought the six-unit strip of commercial storefronts at 1460 Whalley Ave. for $2.2 million from a holding company controlled by Olympia Properties’ Dennis Nicotra. The property last sold for $1.26 million in 2010, and the city last appraised it as worth $2,004,800.

• On Dec. 5, an affiliate of the megalandlord Mandy Management bought the 12-unit mixed-use retail and apartment building at 340 Orange St. for $1.55 million from a holding company controlled by Lorraine and Egidio Severini. The property last sold for $120,000 in 1994, and the city most recently appraised it as worth $977,600.

• Also on Dec. 5, an affiliate of Mandy Management bought the eight-unit mixed-use retail and apartment building at 1 Grand Ave. and the adjacent lot at 181 Front St. from CT Clinical Services Inc. for $1.275 million. The properties last sold for a combined sum of $1.3 million in 2016, and the city last appraised them as worth $1,177,100.

• On Dec. 19, a holding company controlled by Roomunity’s Yoon Lee purchased the five-unit apartment building at 314 Blake St. for $625,000 from a holding company controlled by Stephen Goldberg. The property last sold for $168,800 in 2007, and the city last appraised it as worth $316,400.

• On Dec. 20, a holding company controlled by Tyler Smith of Shelton bought the two-family house at 128 Cedar St. for $95,000 from Irene Da Conceicao Rodriguez. Smith’s company then immediately flipped the property on the very same day for $185,000 — or a $90,000 markup — to an affiliate of Mandy Management. The city last appraised that property as worth $144,900.

See below for a full list of recent local property transactions.