Normandy, Westbrook in contract to sell 30 “Three Borough Pool” buildings

Normandy Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners are in contract to sell all 30 buildings of their “Three Borough Pool” portfolio.

The 1,700-unit portfolio — which has buildings in Northern Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx — was subject to one of the largest foreclosure proceedings in the city’s history, according to the Wall Street Journal. Seven of the buildings from the portfolio have been sold to Black Spruce for roughly $58 million, as first reported by The Real Deal. It’s still unclear who the buyer is of the remainder of the properties.

Tenant advocates are worried about the sale, claiming that the landlords failed to make repairs and improvements at the buildings as they had previously promised. Advocates worry that the buildings might end up in hands of owners who are planning to push out long-time tenants to raise rents, the newspaper reported.

Normandy and Westbrook brought in new management — the Bronx-based Langsam Property Services Corp. — and refinanced their buildings for roughly $133 million last year. They also said they worked to solve 95 percent of the open violations on the buildings.

“We plan to work on the violation count, work to try to make the tenants happy. That’s the plan for the time being,” Joshua Gotlib, Black Spruce’s co-founder told the newspaper. [WSJ] — Claire Moses