Rockpoint, Brooksville take full control of Starrett City in $1.8B deal

Belveron Partners exits property

Settlement Housing Fund revealed as buyer behind $1.8B Starrett City deal
Starrett city (Google Maps)

Rockpoint Group and Brooksville Partners took full control of Starrett City in a deal valuing the massive apartment complex at $1.8 billion.

The two investors bought out a stake owned by Belveron Partners, increasing their stake from 87 percent to 100 percent.

“This partnership has extended affordability through 2069, capped rent increases and enabled $140 million of new capital to be available for additional community improvements, including important residential upgrades and social services,” Brooksville Company president Andrew MacArthur wrote in a statement to The Real Deal.

The ownership transfer was structured as a recapitalization within the housing development fund corporation set up to control the 5,881-unit complex in East New York in order to secure its tax benefits. Manhattan-based affordable housing developer Settlement Housing Fund, the agent for the HFDC, is listed in property records as the buyer on the transfer.

A representative for the Settlement Housing Fund did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Rockpoint Group said it will continue its role as owner of the property and its partner, Brooksville Company, will continue to manage it, but declined to comment further.

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Settlement Housing Fund had owned an interest in the complex going back to 2002, the Commercial Observer previously reported.

The 52-year-old nonprofit owns 35 buildings with more than 2,000 apartments, according to its website, including the 198-unit Two Bridges Tower in Manhattan

Rockpoint Group and Brooksville bought Starrett City, also known as Spring Creek Towers, in 2018 for $905 million with a plan to invest $140 million into renovating the East New York housing complex, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the country. The seller was Starrett City Associates, which had owned the property since it opened in 1974.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story listed Settlement Housing Fund as the buyer of Starrett City. The nonprofit is the agent for the entity owning the apartment complex and was therefore listed as the buyer in property records.