This Depression-era real estate firm has truly seen the extreme market highs and lows.
Greenpoint-based N.C. Pepe Corp. is celebrating its 85th anniversary, and, boy, how times have changed since it opened — two days after the stock market crash of 1929.
Third-generation owner Christopher Pepe says business has never been better for the family-owned real estate and insurance firm at 85 Kingsland Ave., which primarily serves northern Brooklyn nabes like Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
“One reason is the demand and the desire to live in Brooklyn is at the highest its ever been,” said Pepe, 42, whose grandfather Nicholas founded the business and handed the reins over to his son Thomas — Pepe’s father — in 1967.
In 1967, a one-bedroom apartment in a Richardson St. building owned by N.C. Pepe Corp. went for a paltry $80 per month, but now that same Williamsburg apartment goes for $2,400 a month, said Pepe.
Of the 20 buildings in the company’s portfolio — most of which were purchased by Pepe’s grandfather or father more than half a century ago in Williamsburg and Greenpoint — prices have generally gone through the roof.
“We have a motto in our family: ‘never sell a piece of real estate unless you have to,'” he said. “And thank God we never had to.”
Pepe, who started helping his father out at the firm at age 10, said that when he took over the family business in 1996 he could barely rent a three-bedroom apartment on N. 7th for the asking price of $550. Now, it’s at $3,500.
Pepe recalled stories from his father, who passed away in February at 74, about how it was “extremely hard” to get the business on its feet at the start of the Great Depression.
“But what separated my grandfather from the rest was his charisma,” said Pepe, whose grandfather, an attorney, died at age 62, just months before Pepe was born.
Pepe credited his grandfather’s success to the fact that he was well-known in the area, being born in Williamsburg, and that he had the company’s law business to profit from.
“My grandfather had connections to the community,” he said. “If you had any legal issues or insurance or mortgage problems, the person to go to was my grandfather or my father.”
When Pepe took over the firm he focused more on the real estate side, digitized the business, and later expanded the Pepe empire with two other offices.
Pepe said he’s thrilled to be able to continue his family’s business and hopes his children will one day do the same.
“My father’s dream was to have one of his children take over the business and keep the legacy going,” he said. “I’m very proud I was given the opportunity.” nmusumeci@nydailynews.com
