Pinnacle Group Acquires Rental Building in East Flushing for $43M

The Pinnacle Group, headed by Joel Wiener, purchased another rent-regulated building in the outer boroughs, a 145-unit East Flushing multi-family property.

The six-storey, 134,000-square-foot property at 142-20 Franklin Avenue was acquired by the Pinnacle Group for $43 million.

The sellers of the rental building were a group of entities associated with Apple Core Holdings, an investment and hotel management firm, which include two of its principals, Larry Horn and William Kohane, along with the owners, Harry and Leo Wagner of Grand Motor Inn at 7251 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, according to public records.

Since the building was built in 1970, it hasn't changed ownership, records show. Pinnacle Group is known in the industry for converting rent-regulated units into market rate apartments.

Back in May, the Midtown-based firm paid $53 million for 318 rent stabilized units at the MeadowWood at Gateway complex, a former Mitchell-Lama development project.

The firm also bought out its partner Praedium Group in January 2015, taking sole ownership of an eight-building Manhattan and Brooklyn rental portfolio, paying $31.7 million.

The owners of the Grand Motor Inn, along with Pinnacle and Apple Core, didn't give any comments.

The property that was purchased by Joel Wiener of Pinnacle Group for $53 million from a partnership between Taconic Investment Partners and Ares Management is a building with 318 rental units in East New York.

The building is located in MeadowWood at Gateway, a former development project of Mitchell-Lama, and is currently rent-subsidized, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In 2006, Taconic and Ares purchased 983 of the total 1,152 units in the complex for $90 million, and have since sold the rest, Taconic's chief operating officer, Peter Febo, told the newspaper.

The 318 units of the complex that Pinnacle purchased will remain rentals for a longer period of time, said Febo.

Pinnacle and Plymouth Group are in partnership to develop a Bronx site they recently purchased for $15 million.