Tahl Propp Equities plans to convert two rent-stabilized Harlem buildings near Central Park to condominiums, filings with the New York State Attorney General’s Office show. Long one of Harlem’s largest landlords, the developer is looking to cash in on a part of its vast Northern Manhattan portfolio with a new $159 million offering at 1325 and 1330 Fifth Avenue.
Plans call for 150 condo apartments between the two addresses, with an average price tag of just over $1 million. The building at 1325 Fifth Avenue currently holds 71 rental apartments and 1330 has 80, so Tahl Propp would likely convert them without doing tear-downs and unit combinations. Most of these units are currently rent-stabilized, tax records show. However, conversions can only occur as units are naturally vacated. The project was filed as a “non-eviction” condo conversion, meaning tenants cannot be evicted for choosing not (or not being able to) buy their apartments from their landlord. No construction permits have been filed for the conversions so far.
Representatives for Tahl Propp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
News of the condo plan comes on the heels of a major affordable housing deal Tahl Propp cut with the city last year. In August, Tahl-Propp secured $135 million from the de Blasio administration to renovate and preserve 549 affordable apartments at five Harlem properties.
Tahl Propp co-founder Joseph Tahl started buying Harlem real estate in 1998. In a 2014 interview, Tahl said the company’s portfolio was 95 percent composed of affordable housing and that the company had at that time developed no more than 150 condos in West Harlem. In December, the city approved a rezoning that will allow Tahl Propp and L+M Development to build a 100 percent affordable, 400-unit rental on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem.
Apart from being one of Northern Manhattan’s best known landlords, Tahl-Propp also owns a few notable commercial properties in the city, such as the office building at 524 Broadway in Soho, where it signed WeWork to a 75,000-square-foot lease in January of last year.