A&E buying seven Queens buildings for $83M

A&E Real Estate Holdings is in contract to buy a seven-building Queens portfolio for $82.8 million, in its latest grab at the few remaining New York City multifamily holdings of global alternative asset manager Ares Management, sources told The Real Deal.

The portfolio holds 343 rental apartments and spans 272,500 square feet. A&E [TRDataCustom] is set to close this summer on the purchase for about $241,000 per unit and just north of $300 per square foot.

The addresses are 22-73 41st Street in Astoria; 132-70 Sanford Avenue and 151-10 35th Avenue in Flushing; 41-41 44th Street and 47-07 39th Street in Sunnyside; and 40-11 – 40-19 79th Street and 42-29 Judge Street in Elmhurst.

The deal would see A&E, one of New York City’s largest residential landlords with more than 12,000 apartments, take another chunk of Ares’ dwindling multifamily holdings in the area. Ares, a Los Angeles-based publicly traded global alternative asset manager, has already sold at least 40 Queens buildings to A&E in two deals alone.

AREA Property Partners and Vantage Properties, two large private equity-backed shops that went on a rent-regulated buying tear in the mid-2000s, acquired the seven buildings for a total of about $54 million in 2008, property records show. In 2011, AREA bought Vantage out of its stake in their total of 80 Queens buildings, which were then valued at $540 million. In 2013, Ares acquired AREA Property Partners.

Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis is brokering the deal. Representatives for A&E and Rosewood declined to comment, and Ares could not be reached.

Ares still buys in New York City, but more office than multifamily. Last year, the firm partnered with Normandy Real Estate Partners to buy a Greenwich Village office building at 797-799 Broadway for $101 million.

(To view over 200 more investment sales deals brokered by Aaron Jungreis, click here)