Meadow buys 146 UWS condos at a discount

Firm picks up resi units at 733 Amsterdam Avenue for $61M

From left: Larry Cohen, 733 Amsterdam Avenue and Jeffrey Kaplan
From left: Larry Cohen, 733 Amsterdam Avenue and Jeffrey Kaplan

Meadow Partners picked up a block of 146 residential condominiums on the Upper West Side from the Starrett Corp. for $61.3 million, a roughly 40 percent price discount from when they hit the market last year, property records filed with the city Friday show.

Jeffrey Kaplan’s Meadow Partners financed the acquisition of the rent-regulated apartments at the 229-unit Axton building at 733 Amsterdam Avenue with a $55 million loan from Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies, property records show.

Representatives and Starrett Corp. and Meadow Partners couldn’t be immediately reached.

Starrett, a division of Larry Cohen’s Pembroke Companies, converted the 28-story rental building with an alternate address at 169 West 95th Street into a condo property in 2013.

The company had been asking more than $105 million for the block when it hit the market last year.

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Listing broker Mark Zborovsky TRData LogoTINY  said he set the asking price much higher than he thought the units would sell for.

“The asking price is always a lot higher … substantially higher even than what I think the block would sell for,” he said, adding that the difference between the asking and sales prices are “not a reflection of the market.”

It’s not the only property to take a major haircut. Last month, Simon Baron Development listed a 159-unit rental building on the Upper West Side’s 75th Street for $85 million, $30 million less than what it had asked in 2015.

And earlier this month BGC Partners head Howard Lutnick got a sweet deal when he purchased the 16-room penthouse at the Pierre Hotel for $44 million. It had previously been listed at $125 million.