Another Sitt has sold a home for a hefty price in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn.
David Sitt, an executive with the real estate investment firm Status Capital and a member of a large family with a wide portfolio, has unloaded his 5,200-square-foot house for $12.2 million, according to a deed that appeared in city records Thursday. That’s more than eight times the median listing price for the neighborhood.
The buyer may be a familiar face. The shell company used for the transaction lists as its contact Thor Equities, the global developer whose founder and chairman is David’s relative and neighbor Joe Sitt — though Morris Missry, an outside lawyer who frequently handles deals for Thor, signed the paperwork.
It’s unclear whether Joe Sitt will live in the house, which is at 2043 E. Fourth St. He reportedly already owns a similar home on nearby East Fifth Street, which cost about $12 million in 2016.
The house does not appear to have been publicly marketed, so details about the property and the transaction, which closed Dec. 12, are scarce. Thor’s spokeswoman did not return an email sent for comment. And efforts to reach David Sitt through his firm, Status Capital, by email and phone were unsuccessful.
Based on photos and public records, the 1920s, three-story brick property has nine bedrooms, four full and two half-baths and a slate roof on a driveway-lined 40-by-100-foot lot. The Sitts seem to have owned the house since 1997.
The deal appears to be a blockbuster in several respects. Zillow estimated the house to be worth $5 million, and the city recently assessed its market value at about $7 million, though city estimates can be considerably below the price that real estate actually trades at.
The median price of the roughly 60 houses for sale on Friday in Gravesend was $1.4 million, according to data on the listing site StreetEasy.
David Sitt appears to have scored one of the highest prices for an individual house in Brooklyn for the entire year. In fact, only two properties appear to have sold for more, based on closings through Dec. 22 and featured on StreetEasy. At the top of the list was 271 Hicks St., a mid-1800s Greek Revival in Brooklyn Heights’ historic district, which sold for about $15 million in September, records show.
StreetEasy trends to capture only properties that sellers have marketed through conventional channels, so the data may be incomplete. But almost all of the comparably pricey sales took place in “brownstone Brooklyn” neighborhoods.
David Sitt’s former home, near Avenue T in suburban-style southern Brooklyn, appears near a record for his neighborhood — which is a hub for Syrian Jews, many of whom are major players in the worlds of politics and business, including real estate.
If there are huge sales outside of places like Boerum Hill, they tend to take place in Gravesend and involve the area’s affluent real estate families. Indeed, one of the only home sales in 2023 that rivaled David Sitt’s was a nearby trade that also involved a Sitt.
In July, David’s mother, Marilyn Sitt, also sold her home and also for $12 million. The modest brick property on a tree-lined block, 509 Ave. S., was picked up by Jack Kassin, a textile executive and New York University benefactor.
David Sitt and his brothers Ralph, Eddie and Jack all once worked together at Sitt Asset Management, a firm created to manage the family’s portfolio, which includes major retail properties in Herald Square and SoHo. But about a decade ago, the company’s ranks fractured in a battle over financial management that essentially pitted Jack and Eddie against David and Ralph.
David and Ralph now run Status, whose retail holdings include 1130 Broadway in NoMad and 139 Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights, according to the company’s website. Thor Asset, meanwhile, no longer appears to be in operation.
Known locally for being a major owner of land in the amusement zone in Coney Island, Thor Equities has lost some Manhattan properties over the past few months. But the Joe Sitt-founded and helmed firm — which has an array of holdings in London, Paris and Madrid — continues to be active outside of New York and has branched into infrastructure investments in recent years.
Thor has also pitched a $3 billion casino bid for Coney Island.