The three Canadian brothers who have been snapping up Buffalo apartment buildings and other properties have struck again, buying up a 27-unit Main Street apartment building from banker-turned-developer Paul Kolkmeyer.
Gold Wynn Residential – owned by Jeff, Leslie and Paul Wynn of Toronto – paid $1.9 million through Gold Wynn Mercer Commons to purchase a four-story brick apartment building at 2813 Main, near the corner of Depew Avenue.
Kolkmeyer, whose Priam Enterprises owns office and residential buildings in downtown Buffalo, sold the 32,766-square-foot building, which has been known as University Court Apartments and Mercer Commons.
Built in 1930, Mercer Commons sits on just over a half-acre of land. All the units are loft-style or two-bedroom apartments of about 900 square feet, renting for an average of $690 per month, according to a listing on LoopNet.
The apartment complex sold in July 2005 for $600,000, and then Kolkmeyer bought it for $1.05 million on Dec. 31, 2007 from Michael Halberstam of Cedarhurst, N.Y. That means it doubled in price since then.
This is the second major deal between Kolkmeyer and Gold Wynn. Last October, Kolkmeyer sold his Campion Hall Apartments – a former Canisius College dormitory at 2316 Main that was converted into 23 apartments – to Gold Wynn, also for $1.9 million.
Gold Wynn, which emerged in the Buffalo market several years ago, is a real estate development, investment and management firm that is part of the larger Wynn Group of Companies of Toronto, with holdings in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Israel.
Locally, the family-owned company bought and renovated 69 Delaware Ave., the former BAC building next to Niagara Square, and then made its mark by acquiring all 18 of Anthony Kissling’s local properties in the region, including Cathedral Place in downtown Buffalo and the Remington Lofts in North Tonawanda. That purchase encompassed 841 apartments and 85,000 square feet of commercial space.
Published by The Buffalo News
