Stuy-Town owners push to raise income before potential sale

Stuyvesant Town
Stuyvesant Town

Now that the legal fracas over Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village has finally been resolved, its owners are looking to boost income at the mammoth housing complex before putting it on the market, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Several real estate experts speculated CWCapital Asset Management would begin marketing the 11,200-apartment complex shortly after the case was settled earlier this year. But those familiar with the deal told the Journal that CWCapital will wait until the property brings in additional money. Appraisers currently value Stuyvesant Town at $3.25 billion to $4 billion.

CWCapital gained control of the East Side complex in 2010, after Tishman Speyer Properties and its partners handed the property over to creditors.

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Earlier this month, CWCapital agreed  to pay out $69 million in a class-action lawsuit over rental rates on luxury units. For a long time, the pending lawsuit had deterred sales. Now, CWCapital believes that it can raise rents on those units and secure a higher sales price in the future.

Any effort to sell the complex would likely evoke a strong community response and give new rise to the affordable housing debate, given its large concentration of rent-regulated apartments. CWCapital has previously stated it would like to sell the property on the open market to the highest bidder, a move that would push up rents further. But the complex’s 22,000-plus tenants have political clout and won’t stand down so easily, according to the Journal.

“I don’t see a fast, simple or short resolution or disposition of the asset,” Michael Ashner, chief executive of landlord Winthrop Realty Trust, which tried to take control of the property in 2010, told the Journal. [WSJ]Hiten Samtani