Lower East Side Matzo Fixture Plans a Move to Another Borough
Streit's Matzo Bakery, after calling the Lower East Side home for more than 80 years, has put its four-building factory on the market for $25 million. It is planning to move its operations to another borough, a broker representing the building said.
The company has casually marketed its 47,000 square feet of above-grade space for years, but three weeks ago executives put it on sale in earnest, the broker from Massey Knakal, Michael DeCheser, said.
"It's not going out of business," he said. "They have a game plan to set up the facility in another location, which prevented them from selling in the past."
Mr. DeCheser would not divulge the new location, and Streit's executives couldn't be reached for comment last night.
The company was founded in the 1890s by Aron Streit and his wife, Nettie, who emigrated to America from Europe, according to a history of the company on its Web site. They opened their first factory in the buildings, located at 148-154 Rivington St., which were converted from tenements. Streit's granddaughters and greatgrandsons run the company, according to the Web site.
The listing was first reported on Curbed.com.
Potential developers will have several options for the site. Because the building is over the neighborhood's zoning requirements, if it was knocked it down they could build only 35,000 square feet of residential space, Mr. DeCheser said. If they added a community facility, they could build up to 67,000 square feet of residential space. If a proposed zoning change goes through, they would be able to build only 41,000 square feet of residential space, the broker said.
"It's going to be a complicated situation for a developer or converted," he said.
Still, an offer has already been made and buyers are "coming out of the woodworks," Mr. DeCheser said.
The block is in the midst of a rapidly changing section of the Lower East Side, where new residential projects and high-end retail and restaurants are increasingly common.
