Coney Island-based real estate firm Rybak Development is in contract to acquire a Lenox Hill building belonging to a nonprofit charity organization for just under $10 million, records show.
Founded in 2007 by Sergey Rybak, the development company, which is focused heavily on ground-up condo and rental projects, inked a deal Feb. 12 with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association to purchase the property at 248 E. 62nd St., according to a copy of the contract filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court Tuesday. The sale of any type of real estate by a nonprofit requires legal approval.
Rybak and Natalia Sorkin, both members of the limited liability company named after the address, signed the contract to acquire the roughly 7,000-square-foot, 3-story property — once a location for the nonprofit Mission Helpers of the Sacred — for $9.7 million in a cash deal, records show. Sorkin’s affiliation with any particular development firm is unclear, but she and Rybak have previously entered into transactions together, including the acquisition two years ago of a development site at 119-17 Union Turnpike in Queens for $19.9 million and the $21.9 million refinancing a year before that of a mixed-use condo project at 2633 Ocean Ave. in Sheepshead Bay.
Rybak Development is responsible for 28 new ground-up developments and 1,600 residential units across the five boroughs, according to the firm’s website. Its founder did not return a request for comment by press time. It’s unclear what he intends to build on the site, between Second and Third avenues. No construction permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings at this time, records show.
The Rev. Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, which is headquartered in Midtown, signed the contract on behalf of the seller, records show. Neither he nor attorneys from Financial District-based law firm Cullen and Dykman, which is representing the religious organization, responded to requests for comment by press time.
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association appears to have purchased the property from the Archdiocese of New York for $4 million in 2010, according to a deed from that time.
As for Rybak Development, the firm recently landed $52 million in construction financing for a luxury condo project planned for 660 Lexington Ave. in Midtown East, Crain’s reported last year, and has another in the works at 502 E. 81st St. on the Upper East Side.
