A&E Acquires Queens Community for $130M
Comprising more than 1,000 units, the asset is under new ownership for the first time since 1983.
Cunningham Heights. Image courtesy of A&E Real Estate
A&E Real Estate is continuing to buy up rental communities in Queens, N.Y., marking its fourth acquisition in the New York City borough. The company acquired Cunningham Heights for $130 million from a local family at a cap rate of 5.6 percent, according to A&E.
The purchase was made through A&E’s third real estate fund that launched last year, AEREP III, and is one of the company’s largest single-property transactions. Jack Bick of Charatan Realty represented both parties in the transaction, while Signature Bank provided the first mortgage loan for the community, an A&E spokesperson told Multi-Housing News. According to Yardi Matrix data, the last recorded time the community changed hands was when The Benjamin Cos. acquired it from Pickman Realty Corp. in 1983 for more than $7 million.
The community dates even further back and was built in 1951 as a garden-style community that spans 22 three-story buildings. The community has 1,056 units in studio, one- and two-bedroom floorplans and a total of 623 parking spaces spread across 25 on-site garages. The community is 99 percent occupied and a company spokesperson told MHN that a majority of the units are rent stabilized.
Douglas Eisenberg, co-founder of A&E, said in prepared remarks that New York City residential neighborhoods have consistently proven to be popular, durable and resilient. He added in his prepared statement that these multifamily investment opportunities in the city haven’t been attracting the same level of institutional investor interest that was present pre-pandemic, even though they showed strong fundamentals.
ACQUISITIONS IN QUEENS, MANHATTAN
With the Cunningham Heights acquisition, A&E now owns approximately 15,000 rental apartments across 267 multifamily buildings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The company’s latest acquisition also represents its fourth purchase in Queens and its fifth overall in the last five months.
A&E’s Queens portfolio also includes a community in the borough’s Rego Park neighborhood and two located in the Jackson Heights neighborhood. But in Manhattan, A&E purchased the 263-unit 400 E. 57th St. in Manhattan, which was its first investment for AEREP III, in October 2021.
