Gotlib, Orbach pay $425M for final piece of big Solow deal

Josh Gotlib and Meyer Orbach closed on the final piece of their massive multifamily deal with Stefan Soloviev’s Solow Building Company.

The duo’s GO Partners paid $425 million to buy the 300-unit rental tower at 265 East 66th Street in Lenox Hill and a group of rental townhouses facing East 67th Street on the other side of the block, a source involved in the transaction told The Real Deal.

The purchase closed yesterday, with GO Partners assuming the mortgage on the properties. A representative for GO Partners declined to comment.

U.K-based hedge fund Children’s Investment Fund provided $90 million in preferred equity, which was arranged by Newmark’s Adam Spies and Adam Doneger.

JLL’s Rob Hinckley and Jeff Julien represented Solow in the sale.

It’s the final piece of the megadeal Gotlib and Orbach struck last year to acquire 1,766 multifamily units from the company founded by Soloviev’s father, the late Sheldon Solow, for $1.75 billion. In the end, GO Partners decided not to purchase one of the properties in the portfolio: the 179-unit Rivers Bend building at 501 East 87th Street, east of York Avenue on the Upper East Side.

That brings the final deal to $1.66 billion for about 1,600 units — or slightly north of $1 million per apartment. 

Their joint venture has been completing the deal in phases. Most recently, in November, they paid $850 million for three rental towers — One Sutton Place North, Two Sutton Place North and One East River Place — which combine for 850 units.

Prior to that, they paid $390 million in September to buy the 408-unit building at 685 First Avenue.

Orbach’s Orbach Affordable Housing Solutions and Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management, two of the city’s largest multifamily landlords, formed their joint venture last year to invest in more rental properties.

Separately from the Solow deal, the venture made another big splash last year, paying $837 million to buy the American Copper Buildings, a pair of luxury rental towers at 626 First Avenue in Murray Hill, from Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and the Baupost Group.