National investor sells Westbury retail building for $5.3 million
An Old Country Road retail building leased to T-Mobile, Yaaas Tea and The Joint Chiropractic, and the 0.35-acre lot with parking sold for $5.3 million. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
A national investor sold a Westbury retail building, leased to three stores including a Yaaas Tea drink shop, for $5.3 million.
Real estate investment company Real Estate Discovery Ventures (REDV) sold the building at 427 Old Country Rd. in August, said Valentine Valdman, the senior property and asset manager for REDV.
The sale includes the roughly 6,000-square-foot building, leased to T-Mobile, boba tea store Yaaas Tea and chiropractor The Joint Chiropractic, and the 0.35-acre lot with parking, said Jon Winzelberg, a managing director at the commercial real estate brokerage RIPCO Real Estate who arranged the deal for the seller.
Investor Advance Properties LLC purchased the property in part because of its location on the "strong retail corridor" of Old Country Road, and its location near a Costco and Walmart, Winzelberg said.
No changes are planned for the property, he added.
REDV sold the building for about $1 million less than the $6.25 million the company spent to acquire it in 2014, according to property records.
That loss is likely because Long Island retail properties can't command the same high prices seen more than a decade ago, before the pandemic and heightened interest rates and dampened investor demand, said Ron Koenigsberg, the president of Garden City-based commercial real estate brokerage American Investment Properties.
Some sellers have been willing to accept lower sales prices in order to free up cash for other investments, "instead of waiting and waiting to make a profit," he added.
"People have sat on the sidelines long enough," Koenigsberg said. "At some point your patience runs out."
But more properties trading hands should help the industry recover, Koenigsberg added.
At least 120 retail properties sold during the first half of the year in Nassau and Suffolk counties, totaling at more than $400 million in deals, according to a report from the commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. More retail buildings sold in both counties than any other type of property, such as office buildings or industrial properties.
