Yonkers Apartment Tower Sells for $52M

YONKERS-Somerset Financial Group of Great Neck has picked up the River Hill Tower building on Warburton Avenue on the city's waterfront for $52.25 million. The 262-unit building was sold by GDC River Hill Tower LLC, an entity controlled by GDC Properties Inc. of Hawthorne. The sales price equates to approximately $199,427 per unit.

The 12-story building was built in 1975 by GDC and is located at 1155 Warburton Ave. on a 1.6-acre site. Jeffrey Dunne and Patrick Bisceglia of CB Richard Ellis' New York Tri-State Investment Team represented the seller and procured the buyer.

Somerset Financial Group plans to convert the property to a condominium, CB Richard Ellis officials note. "This transaction further demonstrates that there is strong interest from the investment community in Yonkers," Dunne says.Jeff Bookman and Randi Kahn, principals of Somerset Financial Group, say that the firm plans to spend several million dollars in common area and unit upgrades. An offering plan to convert the site will be filed with the New York State Attorney General by the end of May, they say.

Kahn says the property's location near the waterfront and 500 yards from the Greystone train station, as well as its numerous amenities attracted Somerset to the property. She notes that the infrastructure is in place, but just needs to be upgraded in order to make River Hill Tower "a first-class premier residential property."

Somerset Financial has a large institutional partner in on the deal, along with Bronstein Properties of Forest Hills, which is the operating partner. The Bronstein firm will serve as the property manager. Somerset officials refused to divulge the identity of its institutional partner.

Bookman says that Somerset Financial recently completed the conversion of the 180-unit Villa at the Woods condominium in Peekskill. The firm bought the property in 2004 and recently went into contract on the last remaining unit.