You knew the rent was too damn high, but what you didn’t know is that it only takes 10 developments to net landlords over half a billion dollars in a single year.
The top rental complexes in Manhattan, ranked by net operating income, brought in landlords $513 million in 2014, according to TRData’s analysis of just-released data from the Department of Finance.
Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village was responsible for over half that haul, with an NOI of over $220 million (aside: that’s well below the at least $375 million former owner MetLife once told prospective buyers the property would be making by now). The 11,200-unit complex, which holds more than 5,000 rent-stabilized units, saw an NOI per unit of just shy of $20,000. That’s well below the figure seen at market-rate projects such as Rockrose Development’s 666 Greenwich Street, which led the pack with a per-unit NOI of over $57,000.
That 479-unit loft-style building , dubbed the Archive, has quite a lot going for it. For one, because of its participation in a state-sponsored tax abatement program, Rockrose owed the city zip in property taxes for the complex in both 2014 and 2015, DOF records show. Rents at the building average just over $5,000 a month, according to Streeteasy. The Archive was the eighth most-profitable complex by overall NOI ($27.3 million) and the smallest building in the top ten by unit count.
(The data is based on the DOF’s calculations of NOI, which is based on Real Property Income and Expense (RPIE) that property owners submit. Note that this NOI number may differ from NOI figures estimated by outside institutions.)
| Rental buildings with highest NOI | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Address | Owner | Residential units | NOI | NOI Per Unit |
| 1 | Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village | Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge | 11,250 | $221.5 million | $19,691 |
| 2 | 594 10 Avenue | Related Companies | 1,689 | $43.4 million | $25,710 |
| 3 | 397 South End Avenue | Lefrak Organization | 1,712 | $43.2 million | $25,247 |
| 4 | 310 Greenwich Street | Stellar Management | 1,328 | $34.8 million | $26,205 |
| 5 | Baruch Houses (288 Delancey Street) | New York City Housing Authority | 2,391 | $33 million | $13,786 |
| 6 | 1282 Broadway | JEMB Realty | 690 | $28.6 million | $41,417 |
| 7 | Windsor Court, 151 East 31 Street | Ogden CAP Properties | 709 | $28.1 million | $39,596 |
| 8 | 666 Greenwich Street | Rockrose Development | 479 | $27.3 million | $57,016 |
| 9 | 1849 2 Avenue | Ogden CAP Properties | 1,092 | $26.6 million | $24,354 |
| 10 | Waterside Plaza | Richard Ravitch | 1,101 | $26.6 million | $24,121 |
| Source: TRData analysis of Dept. of Finance assessment records. The NOI figures are estimates based on income and expense figures for 2014. Owners are current owner, not necessarily the owner in 2014. | |||||
Related Companies’ four-building, 1,689-unit Manhattan Plaza at 594 Tenth Avenue was the second-biggest earner on the list after Stuy Town, with an NOI of $43.4 million in 2014.
OgdenCAP Properties is the only landlord to appear twice in the top 10. Its Windsor Court apartments at 151 East 31st Street had an NOI of $28.1 million, or a per-unit average of $39,596. And Its 1849 2nd Avenue in Yorkville reaped an NOI of $26.6 million, or $24,354 per unit.
Perhaps the most peculiar entry among the top-netting properties of 2014 Is 288 Delancey Street, a public housing project that finds itself sandwiched between luxury doorman buildings on this list. The New York City Public Housing Authority, which is known to be struggling financially, is well in the black at at least one of its many complexes citywide. The Baruch Houses, which holds nearly 2,400 units across 18 buildings and is named for the financier once known as “The Lone Wolf of Wall Street,” managed to net $13,786 per apartment in 2014, for an overall NOI of $33 million.