(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

NEW YORK CITY-Taconic Investment Partners and ING Clarion Partners has bought the 1,416-unit Eastchester Heights apartment complex here in the Bronx. The JV paid $136 million for the property.

Urban American LP and City Investment Fund jointly sold the portfolio which consists of low-rise, moderate-income housing at 1400 Hicks St., 3485 Corsa Ave., 3444 Fish Ave., 3438 Wilson Ave. and 3437 Eastchester Rd., according to David Berger, senior managing director with GFI Realty Services. Berger together with colleagues Aaron Jungreis and Jay Davidson represented the buyer and seller.

Berger tells GlobeSt.com "Taconic was interested [in the deal] as they have recently come back into the multifamily arena and this was a large, well maintained complex which rarely becomes available. They moved very quickly and aggressively to wrap up the deal, with a large deposit and a fast closing."The purchasing JV plans to keep Eastchester Heights a rental community for middle-income families and will continue an interior unit renovation process that the previous owners began.

"Not so long ago, in the 1990s, this was a very troubled property, and because of that situation, the entire surrounding community was in danger of sliding downhill," says Ari Shalam, director of acquisitions for Taconic. "But the preceding owners performed a heroic task in restoring the complex, physically and socially, to its current vital state. The entire Eastchester community is now a stable middle-class community on the upswing."

Rents at the property average $14 per sf, but Shalam says he expects the rents to gradually increase as the area continues to improve. "This is an investment in the future of a Bronx community that's been restored to life."

This purchase is Taconic's second recent foray into the middle-income housing sector. Last fall Taconic teamed with Apollo Real Estate Advisors and purchased about 1,000 apartments at Fairfield Towers in Brooklyn for $90 million. The JV is pouring $40 million into renovations to turn the property into a middle-income condo property.

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