The Orbach Group has sold two multi-family buildings on the Upper East Side to real estate investment trust Aimco for $12 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The deal for the properties, at 518 East 88th Street and 234 East 88th Street, was brokered by Peter Von Der Ahe, Joe Koicim and David Lloyd of commercial brokerage Marcus & Millichap.
Orbach had owned the properties since 2012, when the company purchased them for a combined $8.8 million, public records show.
Together, the two five-story buildings comprise 18,000 square feet and 40 apartments. There are 33 one-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units and four studios. Thirty-five of the apartments have been deregulated, while five are currently rent-stabilized. The property at 234 East 88th Street also includes 16,000 square feet of air rights.
Meyer Orbach, CEO of Orbach, said he had chosen to sell the buildings because they were not located within the company’s “core locations” in the city. That money, he said, could be invested elsewhere.
“We have nothing on that side of town,” he said.
Indeed, Orbach has been primarily investing on the Upper West Side. In September, the New Jersey-based real estate investment company purchased a 33-building residential apartment package on the Upper West Side for $246 million from a joint venture of Heritage Real Estate Partners and Dune Real Estate Partners. The portfolio includes 1,031 apartment units and one store in properties such as the 20-unit 65 West 107th Street and the 10-unit 125 West 106th Street.
An Aimco representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Upper East Side transaction.
Koicim said he’d seen a “tremendous spike” in activity in the Upper East Side in recent months.
“With the relatively low average rents for Manhattan and the Second Avenue subway arrival materializing, investors locally and internationally are seeing value in the market,” he said.
For its part, Aimco has sold approximately 18,000 apartment homes over the past two years, in order to eliminate the related property management costs, according to its fourth quarter earnings report.
“We have reinvested sales proceeds in fewer apartment homes with higher rents, higher margins and greater expected growth,” the report said.