The Bronx was on top in February’s multifamily market

The Bronx stole the spotlight from Manhattan in February’s multifamily market.

The borough saw the largest deal throughout all of New York City in the market thanks to Related Companies’ $71 million sale of a Bronx portfolio to Taconic Investment Partners according to the latest monthly report from Ariel Property Advisors.

There were very few large-scale deals in February overall, so even though transaction and building volume both went up, dollar volume decreased month-over-month.

The city saw 50 multifamily deals in February across 83 buildings worth about $701 million overall. Year over year, these were increases of 61, 73 and 91 percent, respectively. Month-over-month, transaction volume went up by 14 percent, building volume went up by 20 percent and dollar volume went down by 23 percent. This was largely due to the lack of transactions worth more than $100 million in February.

Manhattan was the only submarket to see month-over-month declines across the board in February, while the Bronx and Brooklyn saw universal gains, and Queens saw a mixture of both.

In Manhattan, transaction volume fell by 36 percent, building volume fell by 33 percent and dollar volume fell by 76 percent. The borough saw nine transactions across 10 properties worth a total of about $125.5 million, and the largest transaction was the $40 million sale of 155-157 Attorney Street.  The decline was largely due to January’s $316 million sale of 980-996 Avenue of the Americas.

The market was comparatively stronger in Northern Manhattan, where transaction volume went up by 50 percent and building volume went up by 150 percent. However, dollar volume dropped by 21 percent. The neighborhood saw nine transactions overall across 15 buildings for about $113.8 million, and its largest deal was actually worth more than Manhattan’s: the $44.1 million sale of 1274-1275 Fifth Avenue to Akelius Real Estate Management.

In the Bronx, transaction volume went up by 43 percent to 10, building volume went up by 63 percent to 26, and dollar volume went up by 213 percent to about $154.3 million. The market was buoyed by the aforementioned sale of the Related portfolio.

Brooklyn had a strong February as well, with 17 transactions across 26 properties for about $266.1 million. This was a 31 percent transaction increase, an 8 percent building increase and a 122 percent dollar volume increase. The largest deal was the sale of 670 Pacific Street, which John Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Group bought for $69.2 million.

Things were quieter in Queens, with building and dollar volume dropping by 25 and 41 percent, respectively, and transaction volume going up by 25 percent. The borough saw just five transactions across six properties worth slightly less than $41 million, with its most expensive sale topping out at just under $14 million at 37-06 72nd Street.