7/31/2019 Meet the Landlord Revision

1/1

What are you planning to do with that site?

If it were up to us, wed put a simple glass box

called the Apple Store there. Weve reached out

to [Apple] to have them consider it, but we have

nothing to report at this time. It deserves a really

high-quality tenant that a lot of people would like

to see. We had McDonalds approach us, and weve

turned them down on multiple occasions. We

dont feel that theyre going to help us create

the fabric that were trying to produce we

want to be more artisanal.

What about your properties along

Flatbush Avenue?

Were probably the majority prop-

erty owner on Flatbush between

Atlantic Avenue and Grand Army

Plaza 43 of our buildings front on

Flatbush Avenue. During the next 18

to 24 months, were going to start de-

veloping one or two of our sites. Were

planning mixed-use buildings, probably

six stories tall. Its going to add about 120

apartments. Were going to be able to cre-ate some larger retail spaces, too, but we

want to be really careful over who we put

there. Maybe Trader Joes? Uniqlo? Were

trying to create that more Soho, Dumbo,

West Village feeling in terms of the ten-

ants.

You sold some buildings to Forest City

Ratner for about $4 million what went

into that decision?

We sold three buildings and [they] became

part of the new Nets arena. We recently met

with Bruce Ratner to talk about the area. Hes

also very concerned about getting the right kind of

tenants in and around there, and he met with us to

sound out as to what our plans were. Hes looking for

it to be an upscale, fun environment. We had a great

conversation. TRD

Park Slope, and our largest is a 30,000-square-foot Manhattan commercial building at 1504 Third Av-

enue TD Bank and Lenox Hill Hospital rent the space.

Your whole family is in the business?

I work with my brother, Matthew, and my brother-in-law, Scott. Mom keeps us on the straight and

narrow. Its a family affair.

Accidental landlordsYour family is known for owning Pintchik Discount Hardware. How did you end up in real es-

tate?

We started off with hardware stores we had about 13 of them at the peak. We had one in Asto-

ria, and in 1982, someone threw something through the front of the building and it

started a re. We called up our land- lord to say there had been a re and

she said, Sonny boy, I have no idea how to put this back together.

We suggested that wed buy the building and x it up. Later,

the Gap came along and of- fered to pay us more in

rent than we were making

as a hardware store, so

the Gap won out, and

we found out that we

liked being land-

lords.

How did you build

the business from there?

After buying the building in As-

toria, we started buying two to four

buildings a year. One day, we realized we

were much more of a real estate company than aretail company, so we sold the rest of our hardware stores

with the exception of the one here in Park Slope, which is cel-

ebrating its 100th year this year!

Why did you concentrate on Park Slope?

We had a fairly strong reputation in this area of Brooklyn. Instead of putting

their property up for sale, people would call us and say they were planning to move, and

were we interested? We bought a lot of property off-market.

Tenant horror story?

We had a tenant who had a furniture

store on the ground level. When they

moved out, we found that the back room

2,000 square feet was lled oor to

ceiling with trash. In the 10 years theyd been

there, theyd never thrown anything out. It

took us 160 cubic yards of dumpster to empty

out the space.

Building a NeighborhoodYoure known for being selective about your ten-

ants last month, you turned down an offer

from Hooters to lease space across

the street from the new Barclays

Center. Why?

We turn down about 70 percent of

the people that come to us with offers.

Its our belief that through very careful editing, we can

make the neighborhood nicer and more interestingand at the same time do good business.

In the long run, itll pay off in tenant re-

tention.

48 June 2012 www.TheRealDeal.com

By Jane C. Timm

PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE REAL DEAL BY CHRIS MARTIN

Vital Stats:

Name:Michael Pintchik

Age: 60

Hometown: Born in Brooklyn, raised in

Hewlett, Long Island

Currently living in: Carnegie Hill,

Manhattan

Building BlocksHow many buildings do you own?

Sixty buildings, mostly mixed-use in Brooklyn,

Queens and Manhattan. The lions share of our

buildings are in Park Slope, though.

How many units?

Approximately 325 apartments and 75 commer-

cial units. Our smallest is a f our-story townhouse

with four apartments at 16 St. Marks Place in

Pintchiks Manhattanand Brooklyn proper-ties

1504 Third Avenue