The Elad Group will partner with Larry Silverstein’s Silverstein Properties on a mixed-use development on the Upper West Side. The pair is in contract to buy a parcel at Riverside South from the Carlyle Group that boasts 950,000 buildable square feet for $160 million, a source told The Real Deal.
A first ever collaboration for the two developers, the project will boast residential and retail, although the proportions of each have not been decided yet, nor has the unit breakdown of the apartments, the source said.
The site, at 1 West End Avenue between West 59th and West 60th streets, is located at the southern tip of Riverside South, a massive portion of land overlooking the Hudson River. The lot is one of five that make up Carlyle and Extell Development’s Riverside Center “master development,” and is one of the last large development parcels available in Manhattan.
Silverstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment; Carlyle declined to comment.
Carlyle and Extell purchased the sites in 2005 from Hong Kong-based backers of Donald Trump, who had acquired the 56-acre Riverside South in 1985. Some portions of Riverside South remain undeveloped due to financing and approval issues.
Carlyle and Extell sold another remaining portion of Riverside Center, site 2, to a partnership of the Dermot Company and AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust last year for $70 million, according to previous news reports.
The price tag — $168 per buildable square foot — is on the low end for a development site in the area, but that could be related to the city’s requirements that affordable housing and community space be included at anything built on the site.
Silverstein, one of the city’s most noted developers, is likely best known for its work at the World Trade Center site. Four World Trade Center officially opened today with about one third of the building leased up.
Elad, which notably converted the Plaza Hotel to apartments earlier this decade but slowed their acquisitions after the recession, now has a number of projects in the pipeline, according to Elad CEO Udi Erez. He declined to comment specifically on the Riverside South parcel.
“We have a number of new and exciting initiatives planned,” Erez said in a statement provided exclusively to TRD. “The company is also proactively pursuing new investment opportunities throughout the United States and Canada.”
Tel Aviv daily Haaretz first broke news of the sale of the parcel earlier this year, but had the price at $170 million. The source confirmed the parcel is in contract but said the sale will close in December for $160 million. Haaretz had reported that the partnership would invest about $650 million in the project, which would provide more than 660 apartments.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the stage of the acquisition; in fact, the developers are in contract.