Watch: Uncovering Carlyle’s Brooklyn buying spree

Hiten Samtani and Rich Bockmann explain how TRD pieced together the PE firm’s stealthy purchases

Last week, The Real Deal’s Rich Bockmann uncovered a big play in the private equity industry: Over the past year, the Carlyle Group has made scores of small purchases to assemble at least a half-billion-dollar portfolio of modest rental buildings across Brooklyn and Queens.

The move is an unusual one for a big firm known for nine- and ten-figure transactions. Carlyle kept it under the radar by making one-off deals rather than acquiring a big portfolio like some of their peers have done, and targeted the type of market-rate, walk-up assets typically owned by mom-and-pop investors rather than major players.

To nail down the story, senior reporter Bockmann and researcher Jay Young sifted through hundreds of property records recorded under a Carlyle LLC, and spoke to a variety of sources about the deals and the strategy behind them.

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The news comes during a chaotic period for the multifamily market. The expiration of 421a in June has led to fears that multifamily housing development will be seriously stunted. And the pandemic’s rent moratoriums and failed landlord aid programs, on top of 2019’s rent-stabilization law, have pushed many small landlords to despair.

Landlords did beat back a statewide good cause eviction bill, and rents are skyrocketing after a pandemic plunge. But with inflation and interest rates spiking, and a carbon-emissions law looming, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the sector.

Above, TRD associate publisher Hiten Samtani speaks to Bockmann about what Carlyle’s Brooklyn bonanza means for the market. Watch them break it down in the video above.