NYC investment firm nabs Venus at Manchester apartments for $7M

More out-of-town money has snatched up real estate in Richmond, this time an apartment complex along Manchester’s main commercial corridor.

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New York-based Northway Equities purchased The Venus at Manchester apartments for $7.15 million last month.

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The 68-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space is at 1420 Hull St., adjacent to the Hull Street Branch of the Richmond Public Library.

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The deal is the first in the Richmond region for Northway Equities, which was founded in 2016. The company uses investor capital to purchase multifamily, mixed-use and healthcare buildings primarily in its hometown of New York City.

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Managing partner Yekusiel Sebrow said Northway has begun to branch out into other markets. “We were looking for markets that had robust growth and we noticed that the Richmond market is going up,” Sebrow said. “We saw that the city’s investing into itself.”

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The deal closed on July 26, 2021 city records show. The seller was an entity tied to Florida-based Eastside Equities, which had owned the apartments since 2018 when it purchased them for $3.5 million. The property was most recently assessed by the city at $6 million. Sebrow said that at the time of the sale the apartments were over 90 percent leased, but that the building’s retail space has a higher vacancy rate.

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“The area is underserved with retail over there. We’re going to invest money into the retail space and bring in quality tenants over there,” Sebrow said, adding that they’re also planning to gradually renovate the apartments.
Sebrow declined to disclose the size of Northway’s portfolio, but said that they may not be done in Richmond. “We’re looking to expand in the market,” he said. “We’re looking at a bunch of opportunities over there now.”

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