Pacific Urban pays $185M for Chelsea tower

Related, Orda partnered to build apartment complex in 2002

Related Companies, Orda Management Sell Chelsea Apartments
Related Companies's Jeff Blau with 130 West 15th Street (Related Companies, Google Maps, Getty)

Related Companies and Orda Management have scored a big sale at a marquee development.

In what could be a sign of strength in the multifamily market, where investment sales have slowed dramatically, the partnership has sold a tower at its complex at 130 West 15th Street in Chelsea to Pacific Urban Investors for $185 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The price reflects a cap rate of 4 percent and a per-unit cost of $870,000. The 213-unit luxury rental tower is part of a two-building complex built in 2002. The other tower — which houses luxury rentals for New York University — sold previously.

Orda, led by the father and son team of Mort and Tom Silver, responded to a request for proposals from New York state in 1998 and partnered with Related on the development, with the two parties splitting ownership 50-50.

Tuesday’s sale was an off-market deal, a source told TRD. Newmark is said to have brokered the deal.

Related declined to comment. Orda and Pacific Urban didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

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Orda and Related teamed up on two other development projects at the turn of the century. One is the Tate, a 14-floor, 325-unit luxury mixed-use building constructed in 2001 at 535 West 23rd Street. Sixteen units there hit the city’s housing lottery, NYC Housing Connect, in May for applicants earning up to 130 percent of area median income.

The other is the Westport, at 500 West 56th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, which is two buildings with 24 floors and 375 units. Related and Orda purchased the sites from Costco in 2002 after two industrial buildings on the lots had been razed.

Property records show the two companies still hold both the Westport and the Tate.

Palo Alto-based Pacific Urban, which focuses on multifamily properties, was founded in 1998 by Al Pace and George Marcus. Pace is its CEO.

The sale of 130 West 15th Street comes as Related is struggling to unload residential condominiums at its Hudson Yards megadevelopment. Sales have been slow at 15 and 35 Hudson Yards, and units that have moved have been discounted as much as 40 percent.

Meanwhile, Orda’s marquee office tower at 225 Park Avenue South has lost some tenants. In April, engineering firm STV left for the Empire State Building, and before that Facebook parent Meta had departed. Orda listed the building for sale in December of 2019 but still owns it.

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