Starrett asks $105M for 146 rent-regulated units on UWS

Larry Cohen’s Starrett Corp. has put 146 units at an Upper West Side condominium conversion on the market for more than $105 million, sources told The Real Deal.

Starrett, a division of Cohen’s Pembroke Cos., is looking to unload the rent-regulated apartments at 175 West 95th Street, a 28-story rental building that Starrett converted into a condominium property in 2013. The building, with an alternate address of 733 Amsterdam Avenue, also has three commercial units.

Of the building’s 229 units, 80 market-rate condos have already sold, according to broker Mark Zborovsky [TRData], who is marketing the block of unsold units.

The property, formerly known as the Axton, was built in 1971 as Mitchell-Lama housing. Starrett has owned the building for decades and began the process of removing the building from the housing program several years ago.

In 2013, the landlord filed plans to convert the rental building into condos, projecting a sellout of $232 million.

Renovations of the hallways, roof and balconies are expected to be done by the end of the year, and Zborovsky called the 146 for-sale units a “virgin block,” meaning the owners hadn’t approached tenants about the possibility of a buyout in several years.

Recent condo sales at 175 West 95th include a 1,253-square-foot, three-bedroom pad that went for $2.2 million, while a 642-square-foot one-bedroom sold for just under $975,000, according to StreeEasy.

Last week, Starrett sold nearly half the residential condos at another nearby condo, 100 West 93rd Street, where Trader Joe’s is set to open a new store.

Bulk-unit packages are a modest slice of the New York investment sales market, data reviewed by TRD in October show. Sellers are drawn to bulk sales because of benefits such as lower transaction costs and tax savings.