AvalonBay looking to sell stake in $1.2B Manhattan apartment portfolio

Mega-landlord AvalonBay Communities is hoping to offload half of a $1.2 billion Manhattan portfolio, as apartment prices continue to rise in the city.

The publicly-traded firm, one of the largest apartment owners in the U.S., is looking to sell seven buildings in areas including Morningside Heights and Chelsea, sources told Bloomberg. The company did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

The move comes amid rising apartment prices in the city. In February, Douglas Elliman released data that showed the median price for a Manhattan apartment was $1.14 million last year, up 20 percent from $955,000 in 2008.

One of the buildings possibly up for sale is at 1 Morningside Drive. AvalonBay purchased the fee interest in the property for $95 million last year, making it one of the largest transactions in Upper Manhattan in 2017.

AvalonBay has been looking toward Brooklyn for expansion in the New York market, including a partnership with Muss Development on 1 Brooklyn Bay, a 28-story, 275,000-square-foot mixed-use project at 1524 Sheepshead Bay Road. The development, with a $73.5 million sellout, was rated the third most valuable Brooklyn condo filing accepted last year, according to an analysis by The Real Deal.

In the company’s April earnings call, Chief Operating Officer Sean Breslin said that of the company’s 18 markets, its holdings in New York performed among the weakest in the first quarter, Bloomberg reported. [Bloomberg] —David Jeans