Meridian brings E&M in as partner on BX multifamily package

Partners bought out investor Chaim Schweid for more than $50M

2700-2800 Bronx Park East (inset from top: Irving Langer and Ralph Herzka)
2700-2800 Bronx Park East (inset from top: Irving Langer and Ralph Herzka)

Meridian Capital Group brought in E&M Associates to buy out its partner in a pair of rental complexes in the Bronx for more than $50 million.

Ralph Herzka’s Meridian and the Brooklyn-based E&M Associates paid $51.25 million to buy investor Chaim Schweid out of his 50 percent stake in the 699-unit Allerton Coops at 2700-2800 Bronx Park East, property records filed Thursday with the city show.

Representatives for Meridian [TRDataCustom], E&M and Schweid did not respond to requests for comment. According to a source not affiliated with the deal, Meridian now owns a 70 percent stake in the complex while E&M owns the remaining 30 percent.

Schweid bought the properties, built by the United Workers Cooperative Colony in the 1920s as housing for garment workers, in 2005 for $35.8 million, property records show.

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The complex, however, fell into disrepair in recent years and had become plagued by drugs, prostitution and vermin, according to news reports.

E&M earlier this year sold a 55-unit rental building at 148 West 142nd Street in Harlem for $16.5 million. Irving Langer, who runs the prominent multifamily firm, was accused in May of underpaying superintendents in his buildings and housing them in dilapidated apartments.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of units in the Allerton Coops. It is 699, not 1,396.