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Stanley Wasserman in contract for $300M-plus UES portfolio

Multifamily investor inks deal with members of Elghanayan family

From left: 355 East 72nd Street, 1179-1183 Second Avenue and 250 East 63rd Street on the Upper East Side
From left: 355 East 72nd Street, 1179-1183 Second Avenue and 250 East 63rd Street on the Upper East Side

Multifamily investor Stanley Wasserman is in contract to buy an Upper East Side portfolio from members of the Elghanayan real estate family for north of $300 million.

Wasserman, whose S.W. Management owns just shy of 200 properties in Manhattan, Queens and Westchester, signed a contract last week for a pair of apartment buildings with a combined 330 rental units and a development site with almost 85,000 buildable square feet in Lenox Hill, sources told The Real Deal.

The properties are part of a portfolio built in the 1960s and 1970s by Aghadjan “John” Elghanayan, whose brother Nourollah built a real estate empire that gave rise to the residential giants Rockrose Development and TF Cornerstone.

Neither Wasserman nor the sellers, executors of Aghadjan’s estate, could be reached for comment.

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The two apartment buildings – at 250 East 63rd Street and 355 East 72nd Street – originally hit the market earlier this year as part of a three-parcel portfolio that sources had said could fetch more than $400 million.

A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Bob Knakal brokered the deal, but declined to comment.

Wasserman runs his New Rochelle-based family firm with sons Alan and Mark. The company owns properties such as the 299-unit property at 245 East 19th Street in Gramercy and the 176-unit building at 301 West 45th Street, which the firm bought last year for $132.5 million after a drawn-out legal battle.

Aghadjan Elghanayan, who died in 2003, was one of five Persian Jewish brothers who emigrated from Iran to escape persecution. He is the uncle of brothers Henry, Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan, who founded Rockrose in 1970.

The brothers split the company into two in 2009, but combined, they represent one of the richest family fortunes in the country. Forbes magazine pegs the Elghanayans as the 122nd richest family in America, with a combined worth of $2.2 billion.