Meadow Partners pays $72M for Greenpoint rental

Midtown-based Meadow Partners yesterday acquired a 130-unit rental building at 110 Green Street in Greenpoint for $72 million, adding to a New York City portfolio that has changed significantly this year.

In another example of that change, Meadow closed Tuesday on the $200 million purchase of 866 United Nations Plaza from Vornado Realty Trust. An earlier acquisition plan included United Realty Partners as a co-buyer, but ultimately Meadow bought the office tower alone, several industry sources said.

Meadow, led by Managing Partner Jeffrey Kaplan, has been an active buyer and seller this year, an analysis of New York City transactions on property data website Real Capital Analytics shows. The company has alone or in a joint venture sold eight properties with a total value of $643 million, located in Manhattan and Queens, and purchased four for a total of $483 million in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Its largest sale this year was in October. Meadow was part of a joint venture that sold the Ferragamo Building at 655 Fifth Avenue to Vornado for $302 million. Its largest purchase was 866 United Nations Plaza from Vornado. An affiliate of Blackstone Group led the origination of a $175 million acquisition loan. Northstar Realty Finance provided an unknown amount in mezzanine financing which was part of that. Both firms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Brooklyn rental tower, known as the Viridian, is located between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street, and was constructed as a condominium tower with financing from Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, which Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Johnson Enterprises and Canyon Capital Realty Advisors formed.

Condo sales never took off, and instead the project was converted to a rental tower, and received its certificate of occupancy from the city Department of Buildings in January 2009.

Brooklyn investors Chaim Gross, Martin Friedman and Joseph Brunner, of 110 Green Street Apartments LLC, bought the building in December 2010 through a bankruptcy auction for $58.2 million, and now three years later sold it to Meadow.

Kaplan said there were no brokers on the deal.

Meadow expects to hire the brokerage MNS as the rental agent for the building, which is currently about 95 percent leased, Kaplan said. Current asking rents range from a one-bedroom for $2,550 per month to a three-bedroom for $3,900 per months, StreetEasy shows.

Kaplan said they plan several upgrades and changes at the building, including likely dropping the name Viridian, as well as developing a roof deck, which had been planned as an amenity when the building was being constructed as a condo.

Kaplan would not predict how much rental rates would rise in the area, and said his loan from Fannie Mae was based on more conservative estimates.

“We are trying to buy in places where it will outperform,” Kaplan said.