Workable City Development and Rabina Properties purchased the former sweater factory-turned 69-unit apartment rental building at 239 Banker St. for $33 million, The Real Deal reports.
The sale comes just three years after the building changed hands for $10.9 million when a Joseph Brunner-managed LLC picked up the property.
Rabina Properties is a family-run development firm whose investment portfolio includes an “855,000 square foot, state of the art fulfillment center for Amazon in Connecticut,” the New River Yacht Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fl and a retail center in Miami Beach with an Equinox Gym and a TD Bank.
239 Banker Street was major a point of contention in the neighborhood a decade ago when tenants began illegally moving in as the building was undergoing conversion from industrial to residential.
Tenants used the Loft Law to remain in the building despite the owner getting cited by DOB for multiple violations, according to a 2012 The Real Deal report:
The 239 Banker Street building was converted by its previous owner using a hotel loophole in the zoning law, but the city never gave final approval for construction, and in 2009, the building’s owner boldly ignored a stop work order, leaving many baffled…
Ironically, it is the tenants who seem to have stopped the city from pursuing legal action. Multiple tenants of the building are using the Loft Law — offering legal residence to tenants of commercial lofts that were occupied continuously for 12 months from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009 — to stay put.