City assessor database photo
The Hemingway Center condo complex on Eastern Street.
Two investors spent over $1.1 million buying 19 different condos on the far east side of town, one year after the same investors spent nearly $1 million buying 18 condos on the city’s far west side.
According to the city land records database, between Dec. 19 and Jan. 31, Hemingway Investment Holdings LLC, a holding company owned by Daniel and Joseph Scherban, spent $1,172,000 buying 19 different units in the Hemingway Center condo complex on Eastern Street.
The purchases came almost exactly a year after the Scherbans dropped $917,000 acquiring 18 condo units in a complex on the exact opposite end of town in Amity.
Much as in last year’s Amity purchases, the newly acquired condos are in a thirty-year-old complex in a relatively low-income part of town. The Scherbans bought each for well under $100,000 — though more than their average appraised worth.
On average, the Scherbans spent $61,684 per Hemingway Center condo. On average, those condos were last appraised by the city as worth $50,631 each.
On Dec. 19, the Scherbans’ company spent $179,000 buying 300 Eastern St., Units 3E and 4D from Irmgard Boling. The city last appraised the two condos as worth a combined $97,200.
Also on Dec. 19, Hemingway Investment bought 300 Eastern St., Units 2B, 2D, and 2E from James Boling and Irmgard Boling for a combined sum of $166,000. The city last appraised those three condos as worth a combined $150,600.
On Dec. 20, Hemingway Investment bought 300 Eastern St., Units 1D and 3D from Mitchell Brian Boling for a combined $104,000. The city last appraised those two condos as worth a combined $93,600.
On Jan. 30, Hemingway Investment bought 300 Eastern St., Unit 1E from Vipin Agarwal for $60,000. That condo last sold for $37,500 in 2013, and the city last appraised it as worth $51,900.
Also on Jan. 30, Hemingway Investment bought 300 Eastern St., Unit 2F from Vipin and Rashmi Agarwal for $60,000. The condo last sold for $22,500 in 2013, and the city last appraised it as worth $50,100.
Also on Jan. 30, Hemingway Investment bought 300 Eastern St., Units 1A, 1F, 3B, and 4B as well as individual condos at 316 Eastern St., 318 Eastern St., 320 Eastern St., 322 Eastern St., and 324 Eastern St. for a combined $540,000 from RV Associates Inc., a holding company owned by Vipin and Rashmi Agarwal. The city last appraised those nine condos as worth a total of $435,100.
And on Jan. 31, Hemingway Investment bought 288 Eastern St. from Landmark Funding Corp. for $63,000. The condo last sold for $32,000 in 2018, and the city last appraised it as worth $65,700.
The Scherbans did not reply to a request for comment on their recent condo purchases by the publication time of this article.
Wooster Square Buildings Sold For $1M+
597 Chapel St.
In other recent property transactions, a downtown-based company purchased a mixed retail-residential building and a two-family house in Wooster Square for a total of $1,026,114.
On Feb. 3, 597 – 601 Chapel Street NH LLC purchased 597 Chapel St. and 601 Chapel St. from SH REO LLC, a holding company owned by Westport-based investor Seth Greenwald and Stamford-based investor Tomas Haendler.
The two buildings last sold in 2017 for a combined $880,000, and the city last appraised them as worth a combined $790,200.
The two-story, mixed-use building at 597 Chapel St. consists of two commercial tenants on the ground floor and four apartments above. The two-and-a-quarter-story building at 601 Chapel St. is a two-family house.
597 – 601 Chapel Street NH LLC lists another holding company, New Grill LLC, as its principal on the Secretary of the State’s business registry. That state database does not have an entry for New Grill LLC, though it does identify that company as having a business address of 35 Elm St.
Levi Yitzvchak Stone signed as an owner’s representative for 597 – 601 Chapel Street NH LLC on the $1,312,500 mortgage the company took out on Feb. 3.
In a brief phone interview Monday morning, Stone said he does not own the company that made those Chapel Street purchases. Rather, he served as a facilitator of sorts of the “out-of-town investors” who actually bought the buildings.
“I’m just managing it for some out-of-town investors,” he said.
Stone explained that he helped those investors find the real estate purchase opportunities in town. He said he’s not certain how exactly the buildings will be used going forward, and he declined to identify who the “out-of-town investors” are.
He did say that they are not a part of one of the larger, more familiar property management companies like Mandy Management or Ocean Management that have been very busy as of late buying up residential real estate all over town.
Previous property sale coverage:
• Out-Of-Town Builder Buys Park St. Block For $4.7M
• Ocean Spends $1.45M On 7 Houses
• 66 Norton Sells For $1.46M
• Mandy’s Buying Spree Tops $16.1M
• “Rt. 34 West” Hotel Site Sold For $2.8M
• Spinnaker Flips Comcast Project For $14.6M
• Sherman Medical Building Sells For $2.7M
• Pike, Mandy Spend $2M+ In Latest Buys
• 200+ Apartments Planned At Empty Eyesore
• Annex Apartments Sold For $3.95M
• Mill River Office Building Sold For $4.65M
• Local Landlords, Albertus Magnus Expand
• Mandy Buys Warehouse For $1.6M
• Pike Collects $890K On Wooster Sq. Sales
• Springside Apartments Sell For $3.2M
• Family Dollar Sells For 1.8M Dollars
• Pike Sells 2 Buildings To Yale For $3.8M
• 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
It would really be helpful if The NH Independent did a color coded map of the cities top land owners. Each color would represent each major landlord like Yale, Yale NH Hospital, Ocean, Mandy, Public Housing, etc. If we could see on a map which buildings were owned by which major (top 10, 25, 50) land owning large scale landlord companies, we might have a better grasp of how much our city is being taken over by these investors, and how much property is being bought in large blocks across the city. Also adding whatever purchases they've made in Hamden, East Haven and West Haven would also help us to see if they are also making large scale purchases of property just outside the cities borders. I would bet Southern Hamden is being bought up just as rapidly.