A&E closes on $287M purchase of Stonehenge Village

Eisenberg’s firm secures financing from Signature, Mesa West

Ofer Yardeni, Douglas Eisenberg and 122-178 West 97 Street
Ofer Yardeni, Douglas Eisenberg and 122-178 West 97 Street

As the city’s multifamily market gains steam, A&E Real Estate Holdings has resumed tackling monster deals.

A&E closed Friday on the purchase of a three-building, 420-unit Upper West Side rental complex known as Stonehenge Village for $287 million, sources told The Real Deal – more than $100 million above its previously reported price.

The Midtown-based multifamily investment firm, led by Douglas Eisenberg and John Arrillaga Jr., secured new debt – north of $145 million in fixed-rate acquisition financing from Signature Bank and Mesa West Capital, sources said.

The deal went into contract earlier this year, as Crain’s reported, citing a price of $180 million.

The closing price of $287 million equates to about $683,000 per door.

Sources said A&E is planning a long-term hold of the complex. The properties are 98 percent occupied, with a mix of free-market and rent-stabilized tenants. The complex has frontage on West 96th and 97th streets and Amsterdam Avenue in the Upper West Side’s Manhattan Valley neighborhood.

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Ofer Yardeni’s Stonehenge Partners, in partnership with SL Green Realty and Ivanhoe Cambridge, have owned the complex since 2005, when it paid $115 million.

Aaron Jungreis

Aaron Jungreis

Sources said a deal for the properties fell apart last summer when the pricing was closer to $300 million.

The brokers on the deal were Rosewood Realty Group’s Aaron Jungreis, who procured the buyer, and an Eastdil Secured team, sources said.

Representatives for SL Green, Ivanhoe, A&E and the brokers declined to comment. Stonehenge could not be immediately reached.

Stonehenge and SL Green also recently had luck with the sale of their building at 1274 Fifth Avenue to Akelius Real Estate Management for $44.1 million.

A&E amassed over 12,000 rental apartments at more than 200 buildings in the city since launching in 2011. Over that time, A&E became one of the most frequent buyers of multifamily portfolios, but as the market slowed in 2017,  the firm largely scaled back its acquisitions. Blackstone Group acquired Harvard Management Company’s stake in a 13-building portfolio co-owned by A&E last year for $243.6 million.