MetLife received about a dozen offers yesterday to buy Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village with bids ranging from about $4.3 billion to more than $5 billion.
The two residential enclaves occupy the area bounded by 14th and 23rd Streets between First Avenue and the FDR Drive and including 110 buildings on 80 acres with 12,232 apartments and about 25,000 residents.
A $4.5 billion bid came from a tenants¿ group that has assembled investors including pension funds and labor unions and the group wants to convert the complexes to cooperatives and preserve 20 percent of the apartments for middle-income families who rent and make another 20 percent affordable for residents who want to buy with the remaining apartments being sold at market rates.
The Parks, Landmarks & Cultural Affairs Committee of Community Board 6 held a meeting Tuesday to discuss a ¿proposal to landmark Stuyvesant Town.¿ Landmark designation requires that the Landmarks Preservation Commission approve all planned exterior changes.
City Councilman Daniel R. Gardonick, who lives at Peter Cooper Village, has been active in organizing the tenants¿ group bid, arguing that the city cannot lose such an important ¿affordable housing¿ resource. He noted that ¿one of the goals of the tenants¿ group is to preserve the historic structures."
Mr. Gardonick is a co-sponsor with City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez of legislation that will be introduced Wednesday that would require that ¿the owners of large residential properties, where more than half the apartments are rent-regulated, to notify the city¿s housing department 120 days prior to a sale.¿ The proposed bill, according to an article by Charles V. Bagli in today¿s edition of The New York Times, ¿has already picked up key support in the council and made some bidders nervous that the deal could be embroiled in politics and costly delays.¿
An article by Lois Weiss in today¿s edition of The New York Post reported that in addition to the tenants¿ group bidders included ¿Related Companies with Lehman Bros.; Ramius Capital with Apollo Real Estate; and Tishman Speyer,¿ adding that ¿Andrew Farkas¿ Island Capital Group was also said to be bringing in his Dubai-money partner¿.Local player Howard Milstein put money on the table, as did Richard LeFrak, who was possibly teamed with Dune Capital. Westbrook Partners was hovering in the $4.5 billion range, as was Larry Gluck¿s Stellar Management with Vornado Realty Trust¿.¿
Another round of bidding is due October 15.
MetLife, Inc., has retained Darcy Stacom of CB Richard Ellis to market the two complexes and Robert McGrath, the firm¿s public relations executive, referred queries from CityRealty.com today to a spokesman at MetLife, who did not return a call.
Both ¿moderate-income¿ developments were built soon after World War II to provide ¿moderate-income¿ housing for veterans. By the time the first building was occupied, the company had more than 100,000 names on its ¿waiting list¿ when most rents were around $50 a month.
In 2001, MetLife stopped using the lists and, according to a May 7, 2006 article in Newsday by Melanie Lefkowitz, began renting vacated apartments for market rates, telling reporters then that it had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize its profits.¿ ¿Five years later,¿ the article continued, ¿about 25 percent of the¿apartments have left rent stabilization....¿
Stuyvesant Town¿s 89 thirteen-story, red-brick buildings were erected in 1947 and Peter Cooper¿s 21 fifteen-story, red-brick buildings were built the following year.
Apartments are Peter Cooper were somewhat larger than those in Stuyvesant Town. The enclaves departed from the city¿s street grid pattern and the minimalist buildings were scattered in a park-like setting.
Irwin Clavan was the architect.
The two residential enclaves occupy the area bounded by 14th and 23rd Streets between First Avenue and the FDR Drive and including 110 buildings on 80 acres with 12,232 apartments and about 25,000 residents.
A $4.5 billion bid came from a tenants¿ group that has assembled investors including pension funds and labor unions and the group wants to convert the complexes to cooperatives and preserve 20 percent of the apartments for middle-income families who rent and make another 20 percent affordable for residents who want to buy with the remaining apartments being sold at market rates.
The Parks, Landmarks & Cultural Affairs Committee of Community Board 6 held a meeting Tuesday to discuss a ¿proposal to landmark Stuyvesant Town.¿ Landmark designation requires that the Landmarks Preservation Commission approve all planned exterior changes.
City Councilman Daniel R. Gardonick, who lives at Peter Cooper Village, has been active in organizing the tenants¿ group bid, arguing that the city cannot lose such an important ¿affordable housing¿ resource. He noted that ¿one of the goals of the tenants¿ group is to preserve the historic structures."
Mr. Gardonick is a co-sponsor with City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez of legislation that will be introduced Wednesday that would require that ¿the owners of large residential properties, where more than half the apartments are rent-regulated, to notify the city¿s housing department 120 days prior to a sale.¿ The proposed bill, according to an article by Charles V. Bagli in today¿s edition of The New York Times, ¿has already picked up key support in the council and made some bidders nervous that the deal could be embroiled in politics and costly delays.¿
An article by Lois Weiss in today¿s edition of The New York Post reported that in addition to the tenants¿ group bidders included ¿Related Companies with Lehman Bros.; Ramius Capital with Apollo Real Estate; and Tishman Speyer,¿ adding that ¿Andrew Farkas¿ Island Capital Group was also said to be bringing in his Dubai-money partner¿.Local player Howard Milstein put money on the table, as did Richard LeFrak, who was possibly teamed with Dune Capital. Westbrook Partners was hovering in the $4.5 billion range, as was Larry Gluck¿s Stellar Management with Vornado Realty Trust¿.¿
Another round of bidding is due October 15.
MetLife, Inc., has retained Darcy Stacom of CB Richard Ellis to market the two complexes and Robert McGrath, the firm¿s public relations executive, referred queries from CityRealty.com today to a spokesman at MetLife, who did not return a call.
Both ¿moderate-income¿ developments were built soon after World War II to provide ¿moderate-income¿ housing for veterans. By the time the first building was occupied, the company had more than 100,000 names on its ¿waiting list¿ when most rents were around $50 a month.
In 2001, MetLife stopped using the lists and, according to a May 7, 2006 article in Newsday by Melanie Lefkowitz, began renting vacated apartments for market rates, telling reporters then that it had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize its profits.¿ ¿Five years later,¿ the article continued, ¿about 25 percent of the¿apartments have left rent stabilization....¿
Stuyvesant Town¿s 89 thirteen-story, red-brick buildings were erected in 1947 and Peter Cooper¿s 21 fifteen-story, red-brick buildings were built the following year.
Apartments are Peter Cooper were somewhat larger than those in Stuyvesant Town. The enclaves departed from the city¿s street grid pattern and the minimalist buildings were scattered in a park-like setting.
Irwin Clavan was the architect.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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