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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/121109944

Downtown Brooklyn building site fetches $40M
By Daniel Geiger @dangeiger79
November 6, 2012

A partnership of the Carlyle Group and Flank Development is buying a downtown Brooklyn development site for around $40 million, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The property is zoned for a building of slightly over 310,000 square feet of space on the site, a roughly 30,000 square foot vacant parcel at 71 Smith St., a block away from Atlantic Avenue.

According to the source, Carlyle and Flank will build nearly 210,000 square feet of residential condos and a 105,000-square-foot hotel.

In order to achieve the maximum zoning for the site, 105,000 square feet of the development has to be dedicated to commercial use, whether it be a hotel or other some other facility within the same zoning, such as office or education space.

"The pricing for the residential space was implied. Where the differences came in was how bidders valued the commercial space and what they would do with it," the source said.

Flank will be the lead builder in the project, the source said. Flank has developed several eye-catching residential and commercial buildings in the city in recent years, including the residential condos 441 E. 57th St. and 385 W. 12th St. and the commercial building at 520 W.27th St.

A team from the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. led by investment sales executives Nat Rockett and Helen Hwang and also Ellen Israel of JRT Realty Group handled the sale on behalf of the owner of the site, a partnership between Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures.

The deal comes as Francis Greenburger, the chief executive of Time Equities, has been at work raising capital for a large residential condominium and hotel tower of his own at 50 West St. in lower Manhattan. For that project, which could be 65-stories tall, Mr. Greenburger has hired Cushman & Wakefield's structured real estate finance expert Steve Kohn to put together up to $300 million of equity for 50 West Street, which written reports have indicated could cost as much as $600 million to build.