Multifamily dollar volume in Manhattan jumps by 39%

Sometimes all it takes is one deal — particularly one for more than $300 million.

Manhattan’s multifamily market had a very strong January, thanks largely to Vanbarton Group’s [TRDataCustom] $316 million purchase of the 339-unit Vogue building, according to a new report from Ariel Property Advisors. The borough had the highest dollar volume throughout all the city’s submarkets in January, and dollar volume jumped by 39 percent month-over-month. Transaction volume did not change at 13 sales, while building volume dropped 18 percent to 14 properties.

Overall, multifamily activity in New York City declined between December and January, as companies rushed to close deals at the end of the year. Dollar volume hit more than $1 billion for the last month of 2017, but dropped to $898.06 million in January for a 14 percent decline.

Transaction and building volume also fell month over month across the city by 9 and 21 percent, respectively. Year over year, however, transaction volume fell by just 4 percent, while building volume rose by 5 percent and dollar volume rose by 91 percent, mostly because of the Vanbarton deal.

Brooklyn was the only borough that saw month-over-month gains across the board in January. There were sharp declines in Northern Manhattan, while Queens saw the fewest transactions, and the Bronx had the lowest dollar volume.

In Brooklyn, transactions went up by 44 percent to 13, building volume went up by 50 percent to 24 and dollar volume went up by 32 percent to just under $120 million. A significant deal in the borough was Harry Jeremias’ $46 million sale of his three-property portfolio at 2301-2312 85th Street, 320 Ocean Parkway and 420 Avenue F to the Hertz family.

In Northern Manhattan, transactions went down by 40 percent, building volume went down by 76 percent and dollar volume went down by 68 percent. There were just six transactions for the month across eight properties totaling $144.5 million, and the decline is largely due to December’s $243.7 million sale of Harvard Management Company’s stake in a 13-building portfolio to Blackstone Group. It had owned the properties in a partnership with A&E Real Estate Holdings.

Queens saw just four transactions across eight buildings for $69.4 million. Building volume dropped by 33 percent, while transaction volume dropped by 47 percent. However, dollar volume ticked up by 11 percent to $69.35 million, as three of the four transactions across eight buildings were for more than $20 million, including Steelpoint Property Group’s purchase of 34-04 34th Avenue, 30-44 32nd Street and 31-36 32nd Street for $22.7 million.

The Bronx saw a 23 percent increase in building volume, but dollar and transaction volume dropped by 33 and 22 percent, respectively. There were seven transactions in the borough across 16 properties in January for $49.3 million overall. The largest was PRB Realty Corp’s $14.14 million sale of a six-building portfolio.