A Brooklyn-based real estate firm that’s drawn attention in recent months for its acquisition of several East Village staples, including Lucy’s dive bar and B&H Dairy Restaurant, is now changing things up by selling two SoHo condo units for almost $19 million, records show.
Ryco Capital, which is headquartered in Gowanus, offloaded the retail and residential units at 414 W. Broadway for a combined $18.7 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Thursday.
James Ryan, who founded the property investment firm in 2018 with significant backing from his family, signed the deed officially parting with the two units, one of which is retail and the other broken up into six rental apartments on the upper floors, records show. He used a limited liability company named after the address and using the words West Lake.
Ryan has bought at least 10 other buildings in the East Village in the last year and a half, all using variations of the same limited liability company name, records show. Those properties include 135 Ave. A, which has long been home to popular watering hole Lucy’s, for $19.1 million, and 127 Second Ave., home of B&H Dairy Restaurant, a circa-1940s lunch counter that serves up Jewish fare, as part of a massive purchase in the neighborhood totaling $132 million, Crain’s reported.
Limited liability company Blue Broadway, whose ownership is unclear, was the buyer of the units. Suela Prela, an attorney at Midtown-based law firm Gabler & McVeety, signed the deed on behalf of the buyer and did not return a request for comment by press time.
The ground-floor retail unit at 414 W. Broadway, which spans more than 2,000 square feet, is currently vacant after a previous tenant, the clothing store the Westside, was evicted earlier month after it allegedly stopped paying rent, according to information from Ryco. An adjacent and connected retail unit, which includes about 2,300 square feet of space, is contract with a new tenant. All six apartments on floors one through four are occupied, records show.
Ryco bought its portion of the property in 2023 for $13.2 million, records show. The owner of the remaining unit in the building, which controls the second retail space, is Ascot Properties, based in NoMad, records show.
Edward Robertson, the director of asset management at Ryco, told Crain’s that the firm was ready to unload the units after successfully completing its plan to renovate the residential ones.
“We saw this as a good opportunity to generate a healthy return for our investors over a short hold period and recycle proceeds into opportunities we’re seeing elsewhere in the city,” said Robertson.
