Fairstead to buy two Central Park North rentals for $48M

Adjacent Harlem elevator buildings have 100K-plus buildable sf

From left: Stephen Siegel, 211-217 Central Park North and Maurice Mann (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO)
From left: Stephen Siegel, 211-217 Central Park North and Maurice Mann (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO)

On the heels of acquiring a massive $690 million multifamily portfolio, Fairstead Capital is in contract for two more Manhattan rental buildings.

The Midtown West-based investment firm led by veteran CBRE broker Stephen Siegel and three partners agreed last month to pay about $48 million for two adjacent six-story elevator properties at 207 and 211-217 Central Park North in Harlem, sources told The Real Deal. Maurice Mann’s Mann Realty Associates has owned the buildings since the mid-1990s.

Together, the buildings offer more than 100,000 buildable square feet and hold 55 residential units. The 41,070-square-foot property at 207 Central Park North, also known as West 110th Street and Cathedral Parkway, has 25 apartments, while the 30,200-square-foot one at 211-217 Central Park North has 30 apartments.

The deal is slated to close in the next two months, for roughly $673 per square foot, sources said. It’s not clear if brokers are involved.

In the past year, new apartment leases signed at 211-217 Central Park North ranged from $3,995 to $4,497 per unit, according to StreetEasy.

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Both buildings face Central Park and were constructed in the 1920s, records show.

A representative for Fairstead declined to comment, while Mann could not be reached.

In September, Fairstead and Blackstone Group acquired a 24-building, 997-unit market-rate rental portfolio across Chelsea and the Upper East Side from the Caiola family for $690 million. The deal was the largest multifamily portfolio sale of 2015 besides Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village.

Fairstead is the partnership of SG2 Properties and a family office. Siegel, Will Blodgett and brothers Andrew and Jeffrey Goldberg founded Fairstead in late 2013. The firm owns about 5,000 rental units valued at $2.5 billion, focusing on value-add opportunities. About 20 percent of its holdings are rent-stabilized units.

Mann Realty, a Midtown West-based development and property management firm, specializes in rental-to-condominium conversions. In January, a judge ordered Mann to pay a $877,000 refund to a tenant at 478 Central Park West for overcharging him.