Harlem Portfolio Sells at Twice Acquisition Price

A real estate industry veteran, Paul Salib is founder and managing principal at Castellan Real Estate Partners based in New York City. Paul Salib’s firm actively began acquiring real estate properties in 2009 with the goal of taking advantage of depressed asset prices brought about by the financial crisis. Castellan continuously seeks properties that provide long-term value and practices responsible property management. 

In 2013, it purchased three properties in Central Harlem for $20.3 million. The three contiguous mid-rise multifamily buildings are located on West 141st Street between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and comprise a total of 144 residential units. Castellan invested in capital improvements including boiler conversions and modernizing intercom systems, among others. 

The firm also rectified numerous New York City Department of Buildings code violations relating to the properties, while Central Harlem continued to experience growth during this time. In early 2016, Castellan sold the three properties for $42.1 million, or more than twice the acquisition price or around $290,000 per unit, translating to an increase in value of 107 percent.

Castellan’s Three-Phase Energy Efficiency Audits

A graduate of both Syracuse University and New York University, Paul Salib leverages his education and his experience in real estate and finance to the benefit of Castellan Real Estate Partners, which he founded in 2006. One of Paul Salib’s key areas of focus is improving the energy efficiency of buildings in the firm’s property portfolio, thus lowering fuel costs and reducing the buildings’ carbon footprints.

Castellan partnered with Bright Power, Inc., an engineering firm, to conduct in-depth audits across all of its buildings with the aim of identifying methods of reducing operational costs and saving energy. Each audit followed three phases:

1. Engineers inspects the building, record their findings, and prepare a general audit report that highlights their recommended energy saving improvements and strategies;

2. Castellan conducts a review of the audit to create a cost and benefits analysis for each suggested improvement; and

3. Upon selection of the relevant improvements for a building, Castellan bids out the work to contractors.