Monday, September 24, 2007
By John Covaleski, Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Writer
YL Developers of New York is marketing for sale a 224-unit Manhattan multifamily portfolio at an asking price of $157.5 million.
Eastern Consolidated Properties has the listing for the portfolio, which is commonly referred to as Clearwater. It is comprised of 10 buildings in the eastern part of Greenwich Village with six of the buildings on Second Avenue between East 9th and East 10th and the remainder on nearby streets.
YL, a residential condominium development specialist headed by Yair Levy, acquired the portfolio for about $93 million in 2005 from Sterling Equities. The thinking is that the recent housing downturn prompted YL to abandon any thoughts of converting the portfolio to for-sale condominiums.
The properties have a mix of studios to four-bedroom units. The portfolio also has 26,000 square feet of retail space in 20 store sites.
The portfolio consists of 141-143, 145, 147-149, 151-153 and 156-158 Second Ave. Also in the portfolio are 24 St. Mark’s Place, 111-115 East 7th St., 213-215 East 4th St. and 244 East 21st St.
Forty-two percent of the residential units are rent-stabilized, 9 percent are rent-controlled and the remaining 49 percent rent at market rates. The $2,181/unit average rent for all the apartments compares to a $3,604/unit average in the local submarket, according to Reis Inc.
The West Village multifamily market is among the tightest in New York. The submarket's 2 percent average rental growth rate in 2007 compares to 1.6 percent for all of New York, and its inventory has decreased 1.3 percent this year versus a 0.4 percent drop for all multifamily in the city, according to Reis.
The decline in inventory is due to the conversion of rental apartments to condominium ownership, combined with limited construction because of a lack of development sites.
The average sale price for Manhattan multifamily units - $390,317/sf - may be skewed by a handful of highly-priced small deals, such as 11 East 17th St., an 11-unit property that Extell Development reportedly acquired earlier this month for $10.5 million, or $1.05 million/unit, and the 44-unit 313-317 E. 46th St., which Gurevich & Associates is said to have purchased for $40.95 million, or $930,682/unit.