Ashkenazy Acquisition Closes $125M Deal in Suburban New York

Vernon Hills Shopping Center. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., a New York City-based private real estate firm with a portfolio of more than 100 retail, hospitality, office and residential assets, has purchased Vernon Hills Shopping Center. The mixed-use property is located in Westchester County, N.Y., and totals more than 380,000 square feet. Cushman & Wakefield’s capital markets team arranged the deal for more than $125 million with seller Vernon Hills Shopping Center LLC.

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Located at 700 White Plains Road in Eastchester, N.Y., the five-building property includes a mix of retail, medical and professional credit tenants including Starbucks, New York Sports Club, Barnes & Noble, Gap, American Eagle, Brooks Brothers and West Elm. The center has also grown its medical base with tenants like Lawrence Hospital and its affiliated NY Presbyterian and Columbia Medical practices. More than 450,000 people live within 5 miles of Vernon Hills, with an average household income of more than $144,000.

Andrew Merin, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield’s East Rutherford, N.J.-based capital markets team, said in a prepared statement Ashkenazy Acquisition had been eyeing the property for more than 15 years because of its location and tenant demand. Since the shopping center had been family-owned and operated for so long, Merin called the sale a once in a lifetime acquisition.

Joining Merin from the capital markets team were: David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel, Brian Whitmer, Frank DiTommaso and Kyle Schmidt. They led the assignment along with Matt Lisk and Al Mirin of Cushman & Wakefield’s Stamford, Conn., office. John Alascio, Gideon Gil, Sridhar Vankayala, TJ Sullivan and Maya Steinberger of Cushman & Wakefield’s Manhattan-based Equity, Debt & Structured Finance (EDSF) team represented Ashkenazy Acquisition in arranging acquisition financing. The loan was provided by People’s United Bank as lead lender, with Amerant Bank, Iberia Bank and Westchester Bank as lending participants.

Iconic portfolio

Ashkenazy Acquisition’s portfolio has an asset value of more than $14 billion and includes many iconic properties such as The Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Union Station in Washington, D.C., Harborplace in Baltimore and Shops at Rivercenter in San Antonio, Texas. The firm owns numerous buildings in Manhattan and has recently been in the news as the owner of the Barney’s New York location on Madison Avenue. This week Reuters reported that Ashkenazy Acquisition and Barney’s owner, Authentic Brands Group, agreed to keep the Madison Avenue store open in a smaller footprint for a year. Barney’s filed for bankruptcy protection in August.

Ashkenazy Acquisition also owns a stake in The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan and numerous other hotels, including the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, acquired in 2017. In August, a partnership between Ashkenazy Acquisition and Black Spruce Management received a $47 million loan from Amerant Bank to purchase a 15-story retail and residential tower at East 67^th Street and Madison Avenue, with 100 feet of retail frontage on Madison Avenue.