Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden’s Stonehenge Partners has closed on the 93-unit apartment building at 1143 Second Avenue and 60th Street it went into contract for in August, according to public records filed with the city on Wednesday. Stonehenge paid KFJ Realty $47 million for the six-story building, which includes 15,000 square feet of retail on the westerly block between 60th and 61st streets, and 77,000 square feet of development rights. It is still not clear whether Stonehenge will build at the site or simply hold on to the development rights for future construction. A call to Stonehenge today was not immediately returned. — Katherine Clarke [more]

Ofer Yardeni, managing partner at Stonehenge, and 1143 Second Avenue

A 93-unit apartment builidng at 1143 Second Avenue that hit the market in June has gone into contract for $47 million to Stonehenge Partners, the New York Post reported. The all-cash deal for the partially stabilized building was signed yesterday and is slated to close after Labor Day.

The deal for the six-story building includes 15,000 square feet of retail on the westerly block between 60th and 61st streets and 77,000 square feet of development rights. It was not immediately clear whether Stonehenge, operated by Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden, would build at the site or simply hold on to the development rights for future construction. The Jones Lang LaSalle marketing team of Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan represented the seller KFJ Realty in the sale. This is the first time that the building has changed ownership in 50 years. [more]

Ofer Yardeni, managing partner and co-founder of Stonehenge Partners, has been named chairman of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces’ five-year-old Real Estate Division, the organization announced today (note: clarification appended). Yardeni, who was honored at the FIDF’s real estate reception this past November, is a mainstay of the city’s multi-family real estate industry. Stonehenge owns or manages 19 Manhattan properties with 2,700 units, including a 178-unit building in Greenwich Village it bought from St. Vincent’s Hospital for $67 million last year. The FIDF supports educational, social, cultural and recreational programs for Israeli soldiers and their families. TRD

From left: 401 West 56th Street, Ofer Yardeni and Alan Miller (building photo credit: CityRealty)An affiliate of Flushing-based apartment rental firm Orin Management purchased the Clinton apartment building located at 401 West 56th Street from Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge Partners for $37.96 million.

56 Scarlett Associates, an affiliate of Orin Management which is controlled by members of the Sohn family, signed a contract in November and closed on the purchase Dec. 16, city property records published yesterday show.

The 95-unit building at the corner of Ninth Avenue was one of the first properties acquired by Yardeni’s firm, which he founded in the early 1990s with Joel Seiden. Stonehenge bought it in April 1995 for $5.8 million, the company said in a press release. [more]

Ofer YardeniFrom the December issue: At times, this city can seem like an ocean of distress without a drop to drink. Half-built or unsold condos abound. Office buildings dot marginal neighborhoods offering low rents to stay full. Loans secured by real estate are in trouble all over. Yet all this distressed commercial inventory can be elusive, kept off-limits by banks waiting for a full recovery and perhaps mindful that in the last downturn, in the early 1990s, they may have let go of valuable real estate too soon. Nonetheless, some are figuring out how to wrest control of these troubled properties, and this month The Real Deal compiled a scorecard of the big private equity funds clearly leading the way. [more]

The Real Deal went party hopping last night. First, we chatted up the guests at the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force Real Estate Division Reception at Gotham Hall honoring Ofer Yardeni, managing partner and co-founder of Stonehenge Partners. Then, we dropped by the Setai Hotel and Residences at 400 Fifth Avenue, where three separate 58th-floor units were decorated in honor of classic films: “Six Degrees of Separation,” “Something’s Gotta Give” and “Wall Street” (see photo gallery above). [more]

From l: 1327-1329 Lexington Ave., Gary Barnett, Ofer Yardeni, Ziel Feldman

A Carnegie Hill apartment building owned in part by the estate of an only son, Mark Terk, who died two years ago, is generating a bidding war among leading property [more]

From the October issue: With the combination of high building vacancy rates and the down
market, Roberto Gonzalez, an agent at Bond New York, expected to see a
wave of tenants erecting walls and “cramming” into apartments to save
rent money. But the expected flood of people seeking to pile into shares hasn’t
really arrived, he said. “Everything in my gut tells me there should be
tons of people sharing, but there are actually fewer,” said Gonzalez,
who has rentals in Tribeca, the East Village and Williamsburg. Brokers who deal with areas of Manhattan where there are a high
percentage of shares — such as the Financial District, Murray Hill and
Union Square — said that while landlords may be more apt to allow
tripling and quadrupling up just to get an apartment full, that there
hasn’t been a huge surge. [more]