Thomas Breen photo
224 Lloyd St.: One of Mandy Management’s latest acquisitions.
Local mega-landlord Mandy Management continued on a property-buying tear, while one of its controversial housing-development plans underwent a parking change.
According to city land records, entities allied with Mandy, a property management company owned by Menachem Gurevitch and funded by a real estate private equity firm, most recently purchased properties in Fair Haven, Fair Haven Heights, Newhallville, and City Point.
The Mandy-affiliated buyers accounted for seven of the 36 recent property transactions uploaded to the city’s online land records database in the past two weeks.
St. Michael’s Church also submitted an updated special exception request to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) related to its prospective sale of three Greene Street properties to Mandy. Plus, Mandy was cited by the city’s Health Department for dangerously high lead paint levels at one of its Fair Haven apartments. (See more below.)
In Fair Haven, Yehuda Gurevitch purchased the Colonial, single-family home at 218 Lloyd St. from James Klein for $101,000 on Oct. 22. Gurevitch quit his claim to that two-and-a-half-story property for $1 to the Mandy-affiliated holding company Netz Bonds New Haven IX Bentzy LLC on Oct. 6. The property last sold for $72,000 in 2004. The city last assessed the property at $105,700 in 2017.
Just a few houses down on the same Fair Haven block, Menahem Edelkopf purchased the Colonial, single-family home at 224 Lloyd St. for $97,000 on Nov. 1 from The 180 House II, LLC, a holding company owned by Michael Caroleo and Virginia Caroleo. Edelkopf then quit-claimed the two-and-a-quarter story property to the Mandy-affiliated Netz Bonds New Haven X, LLC for $1 on Nov. 2. The property last sold for $50,000 in 2016. The city last assessed the property at $99,800 in 2017.
In Fair Haven Heights, Yehuda Gurevitch purchased the Cape Cod, single-family home at 151 Lexington Ave. for $99,000 on Nov. 8 from Teresa Bracken. Gurevitch then quit the one-and-a-quarter story house to the Mandy-affiliated holding company Gur New Haven II, LLC for $1 on Nov. 19. The property last sold for $43,000 in 1998. The city last assessed the property at $98,000 in 2017.
In City Point, Netz Bonds New Haven IX Bentzy LLC, a holding company owned by Gurevitch, purchased the two-family property at 314 – 316 Greenwich Ave. for $150,000 from Grace Okodogbe, Peter Okodogbe, and Richard Nwadukwe. The two-and-a-half story property last sold for $154,900 in 2004. The city last appraised the property at $134,000 in 2017.
Also in City Point, Yehuda Gurevitch purchased the two-family house at 278 Hallock Ave. for $84,400 on Nov. 14 from Jacquelyn Ford. The two-and-a-quarter story property last sold for $135,000 in 2005. The city last assessed the property at $59,200 in 2017.
In Newhallville, Yehuda Gurevitch purchased the Colonial, single-family house at 119 Newhall St. for $54,300 on Nov. 21 from Raymond Knox. The two-story property last sold for $65,000 in 2001. The city last assessed the property at $114,700 in 2017.
And in Cedar Hill, the Mandy-owned holding company Gur New Haven II, LLC purchased the single-family ranch house at 46 Ridge St. for $45,000 on Oct. 29 from Mildred Snedeker. The single-story property last sold for $1 inn 1973. The city last assessed the property at $84,000 in 2017.
Those properties join one of the city’s largest and fastest-growing real estate portfolios: the Netz/Mandy portfolio. The Netz/Mandy operation works like this: Netz, a real estate private equity firm chartered in Connecticut, based in New York, and publicly traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, is owned in part by Gurevitch. It owns over $150 million in residential and commercial real estate in Florida, Georgia, and elsewhere, including 332 properties in New Haven, Chief Investment Officer Frank Micali told a recent community meeting. It buys New Haven properties under separately established limited liability corporations (LLCs). Gurevitch is the founder and owner of the local real estate empire Mandy Management, one of New Haven’s largest operators of low-income rental apartments. It manages all the Netz properties in town.
52 Warren Pl.
In other recent local property transactions, Albert Annunziata spent over $1.2 million buying two multi-family East Rock residences from Colette Cavaliere.
On Nov. 20, Annunziata’s holding company Willow Mechanic LLC purchased the four-family house at 310 Willow St. for $625,000 from Cavaliere’s holding company Knob Hill Realty LLC. The two-and-a-half story property last sold for $35,500 in 1972. The city last assessed the property at $722,900 in 2017.
Also on Nov. 20, another holding company owned by Annunziata, Emporio LLC, purchased the six-unit apartment complex at 98 Linden St. for $625,000 from Cavaliere’s Knob Hill Realty LLC. The two-and-a-half story residential building last sold for $40,000 in 1968. The city last assessed the property at $610,300 in 2017.
And in Wooster Square, a holding company owned by Chaim Vail and Yakov Borenstein purchased two multi-family residences from a holding company owned by Vail and Levi Hecht for a combined sum of over $1 million.
On Nov. 3, Vail and Borenstein’s Hawk LLC purchased the at four-family house at 52 Warren St. for $542,146 from Vail and Hecht’s 45 – 52 Warren LLC. The two-story residence last sold for $530,000 in 2017. The city last assessed the property at $365,500 in 2017.
And on Nov. 30, Vail and Borenstein’s Hawk LLC purchased the four-family property at 42 Warren St. for $493,146 from Vail and Hecht’s 45 – 52 Warren LLC. The three-story property last sold for $390,000 in 2017. The city last assessed the property at $390,000 in 2017.
St. Michael’s Updates Parking Pitch
St. Michael’s Church.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 16, St. Michael’s Church submitted an updated application to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) in an attempt to keep alive a prospective development deal that would see Mandy Management convert three former St. Michael’s School buildings on Green Street into 23 upscale apartments.
St. Michael’s Church submitted a request to the BZA for a special exception that would allow 11 parking spaces where 61 are required at the church’s 29 Wooster Pl. address. The BZA will hold a public hearing on the new application at its next monthly meeting on Dec. 11.
St. Michael’s pulled a previous special exception request asking for only nine reserved parking spaces at the church’s Wooster Place lot after Wooster Square neighbors strongly pushed back on the limited parking proposal at a recent community meeting.
At that meeting, neighbors argued that nine spaces is far too few for the existing church and for future uses of the building if the church were to fold sometime in the near future.
St. Michael’s latest BZA application asks that the board allow the church to operate with nine parking spaces on its Wooster Place lot and two handicap spaces located on abutting church-owned parcels within 300 feet of the church. Even if the church sells off those parcels to, say, Mandy Management as part of the upscale apartment development deal, the church will retain exclusive use of those two handicap spaces.
Furthermore, the application continues, the church will maintain its current permanent right to use four parking spaces located on the eastern half of the former Chestnut Street on Sundays and other times when the Conte School is not in session pursuant to a 1963 agreement with the city.
The church also notes that it has the right to use 20 parking spaces at Iovanne Funeral Home Inc’s parking lot at 11 Wooster Pl., per a recently inked agreement with the local funeral home company, signed on Nov. 12.
“Finally,” the application reads, “and perhaps most significantly, the Church will lease 25 additional parking spaces at the nearby St. Andrew Apostle Society lot at 515 – 523 Chapel Street.”
Lead On James Street
The city’s Health Department also recently cited Mandy Management for dangerously high lead levels at one of its Fair Haven apartments.
On Nov. 16, the Health Department sent a lead abatement order to Mandy Management regarding toxic levels of lead paint in the second floor apartment at 173 James St. The order references a Nov. 15 lead inspection by the department’s Jomika Bogan, who found high levels of lead paint in the apartment’s bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, front hall, and elsewhere.
“The Director of Health has determined that the presence of such lead-based paint and chipped and flaking paint constitutes health hazards,” the order’s standardized language reads. “Since there are one or more children with an elevated blood lead level residing on the premises, the aforementioned conditions constitute grounds for issuance of this Order.”
Previous property sale coverage:
• 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
While this article is disturbing in its assertion that "Mandy-affiliated buyers" have been acquiring large numbers of properties in selected New Haven neighborhoods, only seven of the 36 properties listed had anything to do with Mandy.
For example, the house that NHS of New Haven owned at 335 W. Division St. was sold to a bona fide first-time home buyer. Indeed, our HomeOwnership Center had worked with the new owner for quite some time, assisting her with the purchase of her first home.
In addition, the chart alleges that NHS paid $0 for this house in 2007, which is not the case, as clearly indicated in the deed. We also invested a total of $365,000 (total development costs) in beautifully restoring this historic home, using a number of different subsidy sources to make this possible and still make the house affordable to our new home buyer.
I just don't want anyone to draw erroneous conclusions from the material that's contained in this chart of recent sales in New Haven.
[Reporter's note: Thanks for the correction, I will fix the chart!]