Al Laboz is still piecing together one of the biggest potential development sites in Downtown Brooklyn.
The Laboz family’s United American Land snapped up three adjacent mixed-use buildings on the block bounded by Jay, Fulton, Lawrence and Willoughby streets for $14.5 million, expanding an assemblage that the developer has been stitching together since 1996.
The latest deal — for 48 Willoughby Street and 385 and 387 Jay Street — adds another 9,800 square feet of built space and roughly 31,000 square feet of air rights to the assemblage, which already totaled nearly 380,000 square feet.
Laboz has spent more than $107 million to acquire 18 lots over the last three decades, which it has consolidated into 16, according to PincusCo, which first reported the sale. The developer now controls the vast majority of the block, with only a handful of other owners remaining.
The ultimate plan remains unclear. Laboz, a key player in New York retail, has described the assemblage as a “long-term hold,” citing its prime location above two subway arteries and within steps of three more.
He has accumulated enough land on the block to build the borough’s largest skyscraper. But large-scale rental projects in New York are difficult to pencil out since the state passed the 485x tax break. Some developers have filed to develop clusters of 99-unit buildings to avoid the minimum construction wage requirement that kicks in at 100 units.
Laboz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Laboz has pulled off this type of play before. In 2012, his family sold a nearby assemblage of a dozen parcels to AvalonBay Communities for $125 million. That site became the 826-unit Ava DoBro, the borough’s largest residential tower when it opened in 2015.
Laboz has continued to invest in Downtown Brooklyn retail. In December, he and a group of investors bought the Macy’s on the block catty corner to the assemblage. Laboz and his partners, Isaac Chera of Crown Acquisitions and the Chehabar family of the Jackson Group, plan to redevelop the historic property at 422 Fulton Street into a retail and entertainment space.
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