Gold Wynn Residential expanded its holdings with today’s closing on Kissling Interests LLC’s 18 local properties, with 841 apartments and 85,000 square feet of commercial space. Gold Wynn already owns and manages seven properties in the city, including the former Buffalo Athletic Club building at 69 Delaware Avenue, and a residential building at 1165 Delaware Avenue. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Kissling employees will join the Gold Wynn team, with a combined staff of about 50 people. The company also plans to invest $5 million upgrading some of the buildings over the next few years. The transaction, involving all of Kissling’s high-end properties, includes Cathedral Place on Main Street in downtown Buffalo, and The Remington in North Tonawanda.
This is a major investment in Buffalo and its future and we see it as a further demonstration of our confidence in this great city, its remarkable architecture and its improving future,” said Gold Wynn spokesperson Jeff Wynn. “We know Buffalo, have relatives and friends living here for years, and are proud to be part of Buffalo’s resurgence.”
The Wynn Group of Companies started more than 40 years ago and is now involved in fitness clubs; renewable energy; storage; plastic injection molding and assembly; furniture; and appliances. The company has holdings in Los Angeles, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Israel, through its Wynn Group International. Through Gold Wynn, it owns multi-family properties in Tulsa and Buffalo. Gold Wynn Residential USA has about 1,500 apartments in seven buildings in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city.
Chris and Dennis Greco, of Buffalo’s Greco Real Estate, brokered the Kissling deal with Gold Wynn and both men will be minority investors in the new properties, as they are in 69 Delaware.
The Kissling properties include two high-rises, the Gates Circle Apartments on Delaware Avenue; the Allentown Apartments, 131 Allen St., with 17 units; The Mansion On North, with 15 units; 175 North St.; West Huron Lofts, with eight lofts; 249 North St.; 257 Summer St.; 398 and 400 Linwood Ave.; 401 Delaware Ave., a five-story building with two commercial tenants and a restaurant; 479 Delaware Ave.; Allentown Lofts, 430 Virginia St.; 712 and 718 Ashland Ave., with 12 two-bedroom apartments; the Townhomes At Delsan Court, two-story rentable townhomes; 209 Summer St., Buffalo Townhomes at Hertel Avenue, one-, two- and three-bedroom town homes; 211 and 213 Summer St.; 2096 and 2108 Delaware Ave. Remington Lofts in North Tonawanda; The Ambassador, an eight-story building at 175 North St.; and 298 Main St. which is attached to the 11-story Cathedral Place.
CEO Anthony M. Kissling runs a fourth-generation, family-owned investment company that started in 1870. Kissling, based in New York City, started buying Western New York properties in 1999. At one point, he owned more than 950 apartments in 19 buildings in Buffalo, many in historic structures that were converted into lofts.
“I am a New York City real estate guy, but Buffalo is my adopted city,” Kissling said. “I bet on Buffalo in 1999 because of the striking architecture, the history, the layout of the city, etc., but especially because of the people. The renovations and the updating of my properties had a ripple effect, and we have now selected the Wynns to be strong stewards to take the Kissling properties forward.”