Fairstead Capital Spends $315M on Harlem Apartments
The company completed one of the largest multifamily deals of the year with the purchase of the 1,790-unit Savoy Park Apartments in Central Harlem.
Savoy Park Apartments in Harlem, N.Y.
New York—In one of the largest multifamily deals of the year, Fairstead Capital spent a hefty $315 million to acquire Savoy Park Apartments, a 1,709-unit, 10.5-acre multifamily community in Central Harlem. The seller was an investment group that included New York-based developer L+M Development Partners and Manhattan-based private equity firm Savanna.
The community comprises seven, 16-story buildings and is 100 percent rent stabilized. Fairstead, in collaboration with New York City, enhanced and strengthened the existing regulatory agreement for the property, ensuring it remains affordable until at least 2052. That is the expiration year of the agreement L+M, Savanna and partners made with the city in 2012 when it acquired the property out of foreclosure for $210 million.
Savoy Park is located at 139th to 142nd streets between Fifth and Lenox avenues, and is where the Savoy Ballroom once stood—legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington played there. The current community was originally built in 1959.
Fairstead plans to update the community, including upgrades to the security systems, improved public spaces and landscaping, as well as modern renovations to interior common spaces.
Savills Studley’s Jeffrey Baker and Graham Hobbs, along with Ariel Property Advisors’ Victor Sozio and Shimon Shkury, represent the seller as investment sales advisors for the transaction.
Fairstead secured a $238.9 million Freddie Mac Loan from Capital One’s multifamily finance arm for the transaction, according to The Real Deal.
Laurie Grasso, Anthony Bonan and Douglas Hoffmann of Hunton & Williams LLP represented the seller. Representatives of the buyer included: Joelle Halperin, Jonathan Mechanic, Patrick Greeley, Andrew Ebersbach, Lee Parks, Larissa Kravanja, and Melissa Brown of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Russel Kivler and Gill Benedek of Hirschen Singer & Epstein; Danielle Epstein-Day and Mitchell Taras of Sadis & Goldberg LLP; and John Engel of Ballard Spahr.
Fairstead Capital is a real estate investor and manager specializing in New York City multifamily properties. The firm has a portfolio worth about $2.5 billion, which includes more than 6,000 market-rate, workforce and affordable housing units.
The firm was also involved in another multifamily deal last September that was one of the largest in recent years when it purchased an almost 1,000-unit portfolio of apartments in Manhattan’s Chelsea and Upper East Side neighborhoods in a joint venture with The Blackstone Group for $690 million.
