Brookfield puts massive Putnam Portfolio up for sale

4K-unit multifamily offering asks $1.5B

Clockwise from top left: 3333 Broadway, 552 Main Street on Roosevelt Island, 1940 First Avenue and Brookfield's Ric Clark (Credit: Apartments)
Clockwise from top left: 3333 Broadway, 552 Main Street on Roosevelt Island, 1940 First Avenue and Brookfield's Ric Clark (Credit: Apartments)

Brookfield Property Partners is officially looking to sell one of New York’s largest portfolios of market-rate housing for $1.5 billion.

Brookfield listed the six Manhattan properties – known collectively as the Putnam Portfolio and spanning some 4,000 units – with a team at Cushman & Wakefield led by Doug Harmon and Adam Spies, marketing materials show.

Representatives for Brookfield Property Partners and Urban American Management, which owns a small stake in the portfolio, could not be immediately reached for comment, nor could the brokers from Cushman.

A teaser for the listing – now dubbed the Manhattan Apartment Collection – shows that the properties can be purchased as a portfolio, or as individual assets. It also points out that the assets are insulated from “likely tenant-friendly changes to New York rent-stabilization laws” because none of the apartments are stabilized.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The properties are: 3333 Broadway near Columbia University; The Heritage at 1295 Fifth Avenue; The Miles at 1990 Lexington Avenue and The Parker at 1890 Lexington Avenue in East Harlem; River Crossing at 1940 First Avenue on the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Landings at 552 Main Street on Roosevelt Island.

Urban American bought the portfolio with investors in 2007 for $938 million, and in 2014 sold a majority stake to Brookfield for $1.04 billion.

Brookfield in 2016 considered putting the portfolio up for sale, but appears to have never listed it. The company owns the properties through its BSREP I opportunity fund, which means the firm will be compelled to sell it at some point.

Commercial Observer first reported last week that Brookfield was putting the buildings up for sale. Cushman’s Adam Doneger and Joshua King are part of the team marketing the portfolio.