E&M buys two Astoria rentals from Related for $72M

Criterion-developed buildings have had 3 owners in 3 years

From left: Jeff Blau (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO), 11-15 Broadway and 30-50 21st Street in Astoria, and Aaron Jungreis
From left: Jeff Blau (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO), 11-15 Broadway and 30-50 21st Street in Astoria, and Aaron Jungreis

E&M Associates paid $72.3 million for a pair of Astoria rental properties owned by a Related Cos. fund, in the second sale since Shibber Khan’s Criterion Group developed them just three years ago, The Real Deal has learned.

The market-rate apartment buildings at 11-15 Broadway and 30-50 21st Street, known respectively as Astoria at Hallet’s Cove and the Montenegro of Astoria, hold a total of 144 units. They are roughly five blocks away from each other in southern Astoria, but continue to be sold as a package.

Astoria at Hallet’s Cove is an eight-story, 76,100-square-foot elevator building with 79 apartments, while the Montenegro of Astoria is an eight-story, 59,240-square-foot elevator building with 65 apartments, according to PropertyShark.

The off-market deal closed last week, according to Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis, who brokered the transaction.

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Related Fund Management, the fund management platform of the development giant behind the Hudson Yards megaproject, bought the buildings from Criterion for a combined $60 million in 2013, a year after they opened. Related Fund Management’s strategy is to acquire, create value and sell.

Representatives for Related and E&M could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, E&M, a Flatbush-based multifamily investment firm led by Irving Langer, sold four Bedford-Stuyvesant rental buildings to Bushburg Properties.

Elsewhere in Astoria, Alma Realty’s 1,723-unit Astoria Cove project received city approval in November.