Retail investors Jackson Group, Aurora Capital Associates and ACHS Management signed an $18.5 million contract to buy a corner parcel in Boerum Hill now occupied by a grocery store. The group plan to demolish the existing structure and replace it with a two-story retail building.

The companies executed the contract to buy the one-story building at 205 Smith Street, at the corner of Baltic Street on May 2, and plan to finalize the sale in the third or fourth quarter, Jonathan Nachmani, a vice president with the Jackson Group, told The Real Deal. The seller was a company owned by the operator of the Met Foodmarkets grocery store, city records show. The seller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The property will provide an unusually large ground floor retail space on Smith Street, insiders said.

“The property has a significant footprint in the center of [Boerum Hill]. At 10,000 square feet, it is a tremendous opportunity that will draw the attention of national retailers,” Brian Segall, a senior director with RKF, said. Segall and Ernest Getz, an associate at the firm, represented both side of the transaction in the off-market deal.

Jackson Group is led by brothers Ike, Elliott and Gabriel; Aurora Capital is led by Bobby Cayre and ACHS is led by Alex Adjmi.
Nachmani declined to comment on what asking rent would be.
But if a tenant were to take the entire ground floor, the owners could charge about $125 to $130 per foot, Timothy King, principal with the brokerage firm CPEX Real Estate, said. King was not involved in this transaction. If the store is divided into smaller spaces, those figures could rise to $150 to $160 per square foot, he said.

“In the past two or three years rents [on Smith Street] have increased dramatically,” King said. “And that trend only seems to be accelerating.“

Nachmani said the retail corridors of Court and Smith already have a strong mix of apparel, food and boutique stores. Last summer clothing chain J. Crew signed a 10-year lease to take space at 151 Court Street at the corner of Pacific Street, about four blocks away.

“This property is situated at the center of two growing and well established neighborhoods [of Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill], whose retail needs remain relatively underserved. We expect to change that,” Nachmani said.

Tags: ACHS Management, aurora capital associates, cpex real estate, Jackson Group, rkf