The LES Site of 90-Year-Old Streit’s Matzo Factory Sells for $30.5 Million
Image by Leo London/Flickr
When word hit that the Lower East Side‘s Streit’s Matzo Factory would be shuttering, it was sad news not only for longtime residents in the neighborhood, but a horror for New Yorkers worried about the city’s transformation into a sea of characterless new constructions. The Real Deal now reports that the site of the historic institution has officially changed hands, closing yesterday for $30.5 million. According to city records, Midtown developer Cogswell Realty is the new owner of the four-building property which totals 50,000 square feet.
The Streit family had owned and operated the buildings located at 148-154 Rivington Street since 1925 and the company is the last family-run matzo factory in the country. After nearly a century and five generations, they decided it was time to leave their Manhattan locale and ended production after Passover this year.
Over the years, a number of developers had aggressively pursued the owners trying to ink a deal on the property. Streit’s eventually caved in January and the buildings entered contract. The deed was officially signed in April. Streit’s owners told Gothamist that the “challenges of maintaining a manufacturing business in a drastically changing Lower East Side, as well as the pressures of increased foreign competition, left the company no alternative but to accept.”
No word on what Cogswell has planned for the site, but the company currently owns a number of commercial and residential properties in Downtown Manhattan, Harlem and Newark. A new construction is more than likely. Streit’s on the other hand may move operations and their 60 long-time employees to their New Jersey factory, according to earlier reports.
[Via The Real Deal]
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