Five contiguous apartment buildings in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., now belong to real estate investment firm Praedium Group LLC. The firm paid Prudential Real Estate Advisors $16.5 million for 10-30 Columbia Place and 24-32 Joralemon St., both walk-up buildings built over 100 years ago. Praedium partnered with Pinnacle Realty Company on the acquisition.

Praedium focuses on acquiring distressed assets throughout North America, especially those middl-market properties that cost less than $75 million. Early in 2000, Praedium acquired a 90-unit apartment building here in Brooklyn Heights.

"This is an opportunity to invest in an asset within a strong residential market with rents that are significantly below market levels," says Frank Patafio, CFO of Praedium.

The buildings are 99 % leased, according to Praedium and include ground-level retail space and on-site parking.

The purchase is Praedium’s first acquisition under a recently closed $465 million real estate private equity fund, Praedium V. The Fund has also seen a handful of other acquisitions over recently, among them a 1,000-unit apartment building in the Bronx, N.Y., and an 85,000 sq. ft. office building in San Diego.

"We’ve had a successful track record with Pinnacle of acquiring, efficiently managing and improving both rent-stabilized and rent-controlled properties and are very pleased to be working with [Pinnacle] again," says Patafio.