Thomas Breen photo
36 River St.
A Fair Haven-based construction company looking to expand its local business spent $1.375 million buying two River Street industrial buildings that used to house the Seaboard Oil Company, in the city’s latest property transactions.
City land records data
According to the city land records database, 2436 River Street LLC spent $1.375 million on Aug. 28 buying 24 River St. and 36 River St. from HHC One Cambridge LLC.
2436 River Street LLC is a holding company owned by Ralph Mauro, Phillip Mauro, and Vincent Mauro (no relation to the city’s Democratic Town Committee chair with the same name) of the Chapel Street-based firm Concrete Creations. The properties’ seller, HHC One Cambridge LLC, is a holding company owned by the Massachusets-based developer Milan Patel.
The two industrial brick buildings near the corner of Ferry Street last sold for a combined sum of $1.65 million in 2017. The city last appraised the two properties as worth a combined total of $1,724,300.
Thomas Breen photo
The adjacent lot at 36 River.
Mauro told the Independent that his company purchased the two River Street building in part to accommodate a potential future expansion of Concrete Creations, which is currently based out of a converted service garage at 821 Chapel St. near Criscuolo Park.
“The space I think in the long term will benefit Concrete Creations greatly, not only as an office space, but that has our whole operation,” he said. Mauro said his company currently has around 20 employees, and the large, largely vacant industrial buildings on River Street along with 36 River’s adjacent gravel lot could be used to store the company’s trucks and other construction vehicles.
“To us, it’s a challenge to take an old building and bring it back to life.”
24 River St.
Mauro said his company, which he founded over a decade ago, has been busy building in the Elm City in recent years, particularly on affordable housing projects funded in part by city government.
He said Concrete Creations built a suite of new two-family homes developed by the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) on Judith Terrace in Fair Haven Heights. And he said his company just wrapped up work building nine new city-subsidized affordable homes at Thompson Street and Winchester Avenue in Newhallville. Concrete Creations also plans to build five new market-rate apartments and five affordable apartments atop two Columbus Avenue lots it recently purchased from the city.
“We work well with the City of New Haven in the City of New Haven,” Mauro said. “We feel that we have made an investment in the City of New Haven. Since everyone has been so good to us, we feel that we pump the money back into the city. That’s one of the things we wanted to do” with these recent River Street purchases.
City development chief Michael Piscitelli.
City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli praised Mauro’s plan to “leverage the skills of his company to clean up and renovate and look for tenants in need of older commercial/industrial space similar to what they did at their current site.”
‘River Street is a key focus area for industrial development,” Piscitelli continued, “and it is encouraging to see the Concrete Creations team is already making a difference, cleaning up the property and making general improvements.”
The two River Street buildings used to be home to the Seaboard Oil Company and, before that, the Seaboard Coal Company. The city assessor’s database lists 24 River St. as being built in 1924, and 36 River St. in 1913.
The side of 36 River.
Mauro said that the railroad tracks that used to connect the former coal company buildings to barges on the harbor still exist. He said that one of the River Street buildings also used to be an icehouse.
“It’s a really interesting building,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to renovate it and bring it back to life.”
A list of contaminated or potentially contaminated sites across the state put out this year by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) identified both properties as suffering from leaking underground storage tanks. The report states that the one at 36 River has been completely remediated, and the one at 24 River still in the process of being remediated.
In 2009, the APT Foundation sought to tear down 24 River St. and renovate the warehouse at 36 River St. to create a new methadone clinic at the site.
Mandy Drops $2M+ On 24 Apartments
Google Maps photo
33 Allen Pl.
In other recent local property transactions, affiliates of the local mega-landlord Mandy Management spent over $2 million buying nine residential buildings containing 24 different apartments in the Annex, Beaver Hills, Fair Haven, the Hill, and Newhallville.
“We continue to invest in all of New Haven’s diverse and vibrant neighborhoods and will continue to offer high quality housing to our tenants at all properties,” Mandy property manager Yudi Gurevitch told the Independent by email. “Each time we buy and renovate a property we reaffirm our long term commitment to New Haven and its residents.”
On Sept. 1, the Mandy-controlled holding company Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the six-unit apartment house at 33 Allen Pl. from 119 & 121 Henry Street Corp for $599,900. The property last sold for $485,000 in 2004, and the city last appraised it as worth $426,700.
On Aug. 28, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the four-family house at 64 Ashland Pl. for $350,000 from Carmine Carpentino. The property last sold for in $215,000 in 2005, and the city last appraised it as worth $187,000.
On Aug. 13, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the three-family house at 81 Osborn Ave. from 81 Osborn LLC for $300,000. The property last sold for $150,000 in 2003, and the city last appraised it as worth $160,500.
On Aug. 24, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the two-family house at 205 Atwater St. for $200,000 from Gerald Brisbon. The property last sold for $139,500 in 2009, and the city last appraised it as worth $127,300.
On Aug. 19, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the two single-family houses at 39 Arthur St. and 41 Arthur St. for a combined sum of $180,000. The city last appraised the two properties as worth $171,700.
On Aug. 4, Menahem Edelkopf purchased the two-family house at 37 Cassius St. from US Bank Trust for $160,000. Edelkopf later deeded the property to Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC. The city last appraised it as worth $114,600.
On Aug. 10, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the three-family house at 98 Thompson St. from Tommy Lee Wilson and Ernestine Wilson for $145,000. The city last appraised it as worth $153,400.
And on Aug. 6, Re Fund II SFR 1 LLC purchased the two-family house at 22 Edgar St. from 22 Edgar Street LLC for $130,000. The property last sold for $115,000 in 2005, and the city last appraised it as worth $79,600.
Previous property sale coverage:
• Yale Buys York Townhouses For $2.85M
• So Long “Heights On River.” Hello, Mandy
• Beacon Bulks Up 9th Sq Holdings
• Lot Buyer Promises Affordable Apartments
• Mandy Picks Up 10 Houses For $2.2M
• ConnCAT Buys Dixwell Clinic Building
• City Buys Walt’s Cleaners For Dixwell Plan
• 2nd Try Adds $1M To Purchase Price
• Investors Drop $1.1M On East Side Condos
• 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
By law, the city cannot use sales prices as the sole indicator of fair market value, the basis of property tax assessments. But there has been a consistent recent trend of multifamily buildings selling for substantially more than their appraised values. (This is true of all but one of the buildings that Mandy recently bought.)
This will certainly be reflected in the next tax revaluation. This will reduce the pressure to increase taxes on other types of property. But if the appraised (and thus assessed) value of the multifamily buildings increase, the owners will definitely pass this on in the form of higher rents.