From left: 1428 Fifth Avenue and a rendering of a proposed development on the vacant site.

Affordable housing builder L & M Development Partners and a city housing fund closed on Harlem’s highest priced asset purchase so far this year, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services, paying $21.925 million for an apartment building and an adjacent vacant parcel. The next two biggest deals this year traded for $12.5 million each — 169-75 East 101st Street and 604 West 131st Street, records from Massey Knakal, which represented the seller, Manhattan-based developer Metrovest Equities, show. L & M Development and the city’s Partnership Housing Development Fund closed on the 120-unit, six-story elevator building at 1428 Fifth Avenue as well as the neighboring development site, both between 116th and 117th streets, on September 26, city property records published Monday say. Despite being a top price for the year in the market, it was less than half the $58 million Metrovest wanted for the site in 2008. [more]

When development group Metrovest Equities first envisioned the 17-floor Mercury Lofts condominium building in Jersey City, it pictured its restoration leading to a 104-unit tower, a perfect companion to the Rialto and the Capital, the two other buildings in the Beacon condominium cluster. But Mercury Lofts, which recently launched sales, doesn’t exactly reflect the original plans, according to George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest. “We were about 50 percent through the restoration,” Filopoulos said. “What we did was, we stopped construction, we asked ourselves, ‘do we want to have inventory that’s similar to other condos [in Jersey City]?’” [more]

Jersey City’s Beacon condominium, one of the largest historical restoration projects ever begun in the state, will be the first luxury condo in the Hudson River area to auction off some of its units. Twenty-five units in the two-tower complex will be sold at auction June 27, with suggested starting bids of $150,000 to $250,000. The units were originally on the market for between $380,000 and $700,000. Twelve of them will be sold no matter how little bidders are willing to pay for them. Developer George Filopoulos of Metrovest Equities may sell the other 13 units for whatever highest bid comes in or set a minimum price, depending on how the first dozen sales go. Comments

Battery Park City’s Visionaire receives Platinum LEED certification: The
Visionaire, the Albanese Organization’s latest green residential
development in Battery Park City, has received Platinum LEED
certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the only
LEED Platinum condominium on the East Coast. The 35-story, 247-unit
building was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and construction
was completed last fall. It features a rooftop garden that harvests
rainwater for irrigation of the garden, a central heating and cooling
system powered by natural gas, and solar panels which harvest a portion
of the building’s electric output. TRD [more]