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Blackstone lends on A&E’s seven-building Queens buy
PE firm provides $57M up front and $7M over time
Blackstone Group backed fellow real estate giant A&E Real Estate Holdings’ $82.8 million purchase of a seven-building Queens multifamily portfolio with a loan to cover the acquisition and renovation costs, sources told The Real Deal.
A&E closed late last week on the deal, which was for 343 rental apartments across a total of 272,500 square feet. The firm, led by Douglas Eisenberg and John Arrillaga Jr., entered contract this spring, as TRD reported.
Blackstone [TRDataCustom] provided $57 million in acquisition financing up front, and agreed to lend $7 million for building upgrades over time, sources said. The private equity firm occasionally partners with A&E or lends on its purchases.
Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis represented the seller in the deal. Representatives of A&E, Blackstone and Rosewood declined to comment, and an Ares spokesperson could not be reached.
Over the past three years, A&E has chipped away at the seller Ares Management’s New York City multifamily holdings, having bought at least 40 of their buildings.
AREA Property Partners and Vantage Properties, two large private equity-backed shops active in the mid-2000s, acquired the seven buildings for a combined $54 million in 2008, property records show. In 2011, AREA bought Vantage out of its stake, and then, in 2013, Ares, a Los Angeles-based global alternative asset manager, acquired AREA Property Partners.
The addresses are 132-70 Sanford Avenue and 151-10 35th Avenue in Flushing; 41-41 44th Street and 47-07 39th Street in Sunnyside; 40-11 – 40-19 79th Street and 42-29 Judge Street in Elmhurst; and 22-73 41st Street in Astoria.
(To view more of A&E Real Estate Holdings’ commercial sales transactions, click here)
(To view more of Blackstone Group’s financing transactions, click here)