From left: Paul Pariser and Charles Bendit, co-CEOs of Taconic
Investment Partners

Taconic Investment Partners co-CEOs Paul Pariser and Charles Bendit expect to purchase five to seven properties that could have a total value of $1.5 billion with the $220 million Taconic New York City Investment Fund it closed last month, which targets undervalued properties in the city. The fund’s investors include Taconic and four other U.S.-based funds, which they declined to identify.

The pair told The Real Deal in a Q & A this week that the Midtown-based firm’s fund could still pay 15 percent to 17 percent returns, despite the property pricing recovery in the city. [more]

By Yaffi Spodek, Candace Taylor and Amy Tennery

After a mid-winter lull, The Real Deal is back in the swing of things, hitting up the week’s most exciting real estate events. We quizzed the experts at the Young Jewish Professional’s networking event, including Ilan Bracha, the New York Keller Williams franchise honcho who recently defected from Prudential Douglas Elliman, Crown Acquisitions CEO Stanley Chera, and Charles Bendit, the Taconic Investment Partners CEO, whose company recently sealed a $1.8 billion deal with Google. Also, we mingled at Soho rental building 55 Thompson’s cocktail mixer and caught up with Elizabeth Stribling, founder of Stribling & Associates, at the Brooklyn Roundtable, where she gave us the scoop on her move out of Manhattan. Click here to see more. [more]

From left: 429 East 75th Street before its redevelopment and a rendering of it today. Center, Charles Bendit, co-CEO of Taconic.

An unnamed affiliate of the Hospital for Special Surgery has made an all-cash purchase for a medical office building at 429 East 75th Street between York and First avenues. The sellers, Taconic Partners and ABR Partners purchased the property, then a parking garage, in 2006 and transformed it into a 30,000-square-foot medical facility. Charles Bendit, the co-CEO of Taconic, said that the property’s proximity to other medical institutions, such as Lenox Hill Hospital at 100 East 77th Street between Lexington and Park avenues, and Cornell University Hospital at 525 East 68th Street near York Avenue, influenced his decision to develop the medical use building there. The sellers were represented by Paul Wexler of Corcoran Wexler. TRD [more]