The transaction was made on behalf of Greystar's institutional investment fund, Columbia Multifamily Holdings LLC. Both the buyer and seller were self-represented.
The assets include two Upper East Side properties, one in the Flatiron District, three in Gramercy Park, two in NoHo and one in Greenwich Village. The addresses are 1430 and 1438 Third Avenue, 254 Park Avenue South, 210, 220 and 321 E. 22nd Street, 298 and 304 Mulberry Street and 184 Thompson Street.
The buy, a major transaction by any standards, is Greystar's first Manhattan real estate purchase, according to Robert Faith, managing partner of Greystar Real Estate Partners. "A very strong opportunity presented itself in a very difficult market," Faith tells GlobeSt.com. There's a great long-term upside in Manhattan."
Benjamin Friedman, president of Greystar Real Estate Advisors, the investment management arm of Greystar, echoes Faith's confidence in the New York real estate market. "We've been trying to crack Manhattan for a couple of years," he tells GlobeSt.com. "This is one of the largest purchases of existing Manhattan multifamily housing in recent history. These properties are all extremely well located and we plan to upgrade the facilities and improve customer service, which will enable these properties to excel in the New York market."
"The acquisition of these properties immediately makes us one of the larger institutional owners of apartments in New York," adds Faith. "We moved our investment advisory group to New York and opened our office here a little under a year ago. We intend to continue to grow our presence in the Metro New York area through additional acquisitions and third party property management assignments."
The properties will be managed by Greystar's New York property management arm, Greystar Manhattan Management LLC, a joint venture between Greystar and Prime Manhattan Holdings LLC. The company will manage 22 buildings in Manhattan. Prime also purchased two buildings from Thurcon in a simultaneous transaction for roughly $40 million.
Both Friedman and Faith say the buildings have a mixture of holding periods and that some lend themselves to condo or co-op conversion while others might be renovated and sold. "All the buildings need some level of fixup," Friedman tells GlobeSt.com. They may be a bit mismanaged. We're going to get in there and run them right, maybe run them better. That's what we do."
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