Thomas Breen photo
The Cambridge Arms.
A Greenwich-based developer picked up $25 million selling three luxury High Street apartment buildings, in the city’s latest property transactions.
According to the city’s land records database, on April 29 a holding company owned by Joseph Cohen of East River Partners, sold the Cambridge Arms apartment building at 32 High St., the Oxford apartment building at 36 High St., and an adjacent two-family house at 38 High St. for $25.15 million to a holding company owned by David Parisier of Paredim Communities.
Joseph Cohen at a recent downtown management team meeting.
The three-building sale transfers a total of 87 apartments near the heart of Yale’s downtown campus from East River Partners to the White Plains, N.Y.-based Paredim. The city last appraised the three buildings at a total worth of just over $14 million.
The seven-story, 69-unit Cambridge Arms complex was built in 1925 and designed in the Jacobean Revival style by architect Lester Julianelle. The city last appraised the building as worth $9.4 million.
The four-story, 16-unit Oxford complex at 36 High St. was built in 1910 and designed by C. E. Joy. The city last appraised the building as worth $4.1 million.
And the adjacent two-story, two-family home at 38 High St. was built in 1860, according to the city assessor’s database. The city last appraised the building as worth $572,200.
32, 36, and 38 High St.
Cohen, whose development company plans to convert office space at 742 – 750 Chapel St. and 754 Chapel St. into 30 apartments and also to build a six-story, 60-unit apartment complex atop a surface parking at 294 – 302 State St., said he sold the buildings for no other reason than that he got a good price for them.
“It’s always bittersweet selling properties that you love,” he said.
His company bought the three buildings from the Boston-based property management company Beacon Communities in 2016. While that warranty deed doesn’t indicate how much the 2016 sale was for, Cohen’s company did take out a $18.58 million that year for the three properties.
He said the High Street sale doesn’t impact his State Street and Chapel Street projects, both of which he plans to begin construction on later this year.
“We are very pleased to add Cambridge Oxford Apartments to Paredim’s portfolio of market leading apartment communities,” Parisier told the Independent by email. He said his company was attracted to the apartments for their proximity to Yale and their location in the middle of downtown New Haven.
“We plan to continue to position Cambridge Oxford as the premier boutique residential property in the area and to enhance its aesthetics and amenity offerings via targeted upgrades,” he wrote.
He said Paredim already owns 208 apartment units in New Haven on the East Haven line and another 341 units in East Haven and West Haven. He said Paredim has residential holdings all over the state, and has been operating in Connecticut for 17 years.
Previous property sale coverage:
• 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
The city's appraisals of downtown apartment buildings have been consistently low.
These buildings were appraised at $14m and sold for $25m. (appraised at 56% of market value).
Here are some others reported in NHI:
Address Appraised Value Sales Price App/Sales %
123 Church St 3,349,800 6,400,000 52.3%
297 George 3,228,300 5,000,000 64.6%
245 Whitney Ave 1,300,000 2,310,000 56.3%
738 Whitney Ave 623,000 950,000 65.6%
202-208 Sherman Ave 863,800 1,650,000 52.4%
1245 Chapel (Novella) 20,016,000 39,625,000 50.5%
100 Howe St 3,690,500 11,912,732 31.0%
420-424 Whitney Ave 1,486,400 3,000,000 49.5%
431-437 Whitney Ave 1,751,800 3,600,000 48.7%
After the last tax assessment I took a random sample of houses in my neighborhood (not cherry picked, but rather the first 25 houses I could find with sales between 2014-2018) and found they appraised for 96% of their sales prices. Why are the large developers taxed at such a smaller percent of market value than the regular homeowners?