Yesterday, Pantzer Properties' Jason Pantzer (left, with co-prez Jordan Pantzer) told us Panco Strategic Real Estate Fund II picked up its first NYC apartment property, paying $35.8M for 370 Columbus Ave between 77th and 78th across from the American Museum of Natural History. (In Night at the Museum 3, the exhibits come to life and go across the street in search of better finishes.) Until now, the NYC-based fund has focused mostly on DC. Since it opened in January, Fund II has spent $330M on three DC-area properties. The fund has another $200M of equity to invest. (Parent company Pantzer Properties owns 800 units on Long Island and until recently held debt on 36 Manhattan properties.)

Jason says his company looks for well-located properties trading for significantly below replacement cost, a hard find in Manhattan. That's why Massey Knakal had the 54-unit elevator building (which we snapped this morning) with air rights on the market for just one day during the last week in August before Jason made a deal on site to buy it. (It closed Dec. 9.) Panco will renovate the common areas, especially the lobby, which he says has 13-foot ceilings and tremendous pre-war details but hasn't been touched since the building went up in 1910. It'll also renovate units as they turn. The apartments are below market rents, Jason says, and the two stores with 80 feet of frontage, including the popular Sushi of Gari, are leased for a fraction of market rent.