"The deal provides great guidance for buyers and sellers alike in determining where values currently reside for class A apartment properties in Manhattan," Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, tells GlobeSt.com. "The closer investors move towards value consensus, the greater likelihood of higher transaction activity."

Ironically, three years ago it was Macklowe as the buyer of Equity assets, when it made its $7.4-billion acquisition of what was then known as the Equity Office Properties portfolio from the Blackstone Group. Macklowe acquired eight of the nine EOP class A office assets in Midtown; all have since been sold. When the sale of the three rental properties to Equity Residential is finalized, Macklowe's New York City holdings will include a condominium project at 310 E. 53d St. that is 100% sold out and office properties at 400 and 510 Madison Ave. and 610 Broadway. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Macklowe sold a development site at 440 Park Ave., formerly the location of the Drake Hotel, to Los Angeles-based CIM Group for $305.4 million.

Equity Residential's expansion in the city's multifamily sector comes at a time when, according to the Real Estate Group's latest Manhattan Rental Market Report, the rental market here "continues to show signs of a bottom. Rents remain relatively flat in month-to-month comparisons, averaging less than a 1% decline this report period. Even in neighborhood/apartment type comparisons, no change was greater than 10%. While it is uncertain how long this holding pattern will continue, a significant decrease in vacancies this month leads us to be optimistic for the market's next move."