Zar He Buys! Busy Firm Spends $50 M. for Three SoHo Buildings

Retail and housing acquisition firm Zar Property NY, led by Dario Zar, has picked up a set of SoHo buildings from an individual family, paying over $50 million for the three buildings at 38-40 Greene Street and 42-50 Greene Street.

The buildings are home to a sizable Lucky Brand Jeans storefront and Ron Ben-Israel Cakes, which made the gigantic 12-foot-high cake for the Plaza Hotel’s 100th anniversary bash last year.

The deal, about 110,000 square feet in full between the three five-story buildings, marks the second purchase in recent months for the modestly sized Zar. Last month, the firm announced it had picked up a 12,000-square-foot retail condo at 62 Thomas Street, home to the trendy Japanese restaurant Megu. Zar, which partnered with Nassimi Realty on the SoHo deal, tends to invest in higher-end retail condos and some apartment buildings, and owns millions of square feet of shopping centers outside of New York.

“A lot of leases are coming up and they’re all undervalued,” Mr. Zar said of his newest portfolio.

The investment sales team of Scott Latham, Ron Cohen, Jon Caplan and Richard Baxter at Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller; Zar represented itself on the deal, with Mr. Zar’s nephews, David Zar and Simon Zar, assisting.

A representative from Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment on the deal.