Three Masaschi downtown projects under new ownership

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Three prominent upscale apartment buildings in the heart of downtown are no longer under management or ownership of their financially troubled developer, Thomas Masaschi and DHD Ventures.

Daniel Elstein, a retired orthopedic surgeon from the Syracuse area, has assumed 90 percent ownership of 88 on Elm, The Columbus Building and The Terminal Building. The remaining 10 percent is owned by the Masaschi children’s trust, but Thomas Masaschi no longer has management or ownership interest, the new owners say.

Elstein owns Trason Global Realty and Canopy, the management company that oversees operations of the properties. The three Rochester properties he bought technically are owned by one of Trason Global’s subsidiaries, Trason Elm LLC.

Trason Global Realty, based in the Syracuse suburb of Marcellus, owns and manages various commercial real estate across the country, according to Corinne Knupp, chief financial officer for the firm.

“When he gets involved, he wants to make sure the buildings are up to his high standards,” Knupp said of Elstein. “He wants to be proud of these buildings so Rochester is proud of these buildings.”

Trason Elm LLC, also obtained a “significant” percentage of a fourth downtown property, 111 on East. Masaschi and/or DHD does still have an ownership stake in that building, Knupp said.

Elstein had become a minority shareholder in the four DHD projects in 2018 through a loan to the development company. The buildings all were restoration projects, with abandoned and/or under-utilized structures transformed into top-end apartment communities.

But DHD’s partners, Masaschi and Jason Teller, became swamped with financial troubles beginning in 2018. They lost two out-of-town collegiate apartment communities through foreclosure, and last month a Henrietta-based lender filed suit in an attempt to collect on more than $19 million in defaulted high-interest loans. US Income Partners and two subsidiaries say Masaschi, Teller, DHD, family members and/or business partners are in default on unsecured loans that carried an interest rate of 16 percent and a default rate of 24 percent.

The financial woes may have been why amenities promised to tenants at The Terminal Building were never completed. Knupp, however, said Elstein has since completed the movie theater, sauna and the workout room. She said the swimming pool in The Columbus Building will reopen soon, and that Canopy also installed a new hot water heating system in the building.

“We’re really hoping this is a change in reputation of these buildings,” Knupp said. “It wasn’t fair to tenants that were given expectations that weren’t being met. We really free strongly about honesty with our tenants.”

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