Kalimian sells Lincoln Square luxury tower for $265M

Albert Kalimian is learning how to breathe with no Aire.

A&R Kalimian Realty sold The Aire on the Upper West Side to the Gotham Organization and Carlyle Group for $265 million, the New York Post reported. The sale of the Upper West Side multifamily tower comes a month after Kalimian put the building, at 200 West 67th Street, up for sale.

The sale of the 310-unit luxury property works out to nearly $855,000 per unit. One-bedroom units at the property rent for upwards of $5,000, but rental income only covered 87 percent of borrowing costs for Kalimian, according to a Moody’s report. The 43-story property was almost fully occupied at the end of 2022.

A $194 million mortgage on the property matured in November, though there are conflicting reports on whether Kalimian technically defaulted. Along with lagging renewal rates, the expiration of a 10-year tax abatement also piled on to issues for the developer, who was once paying as little as $1.1 million on an annual tax property bill before it rose to $6.6 million bill. 

Kalimian purchased the property from the Red Cross for $72.3 million in 2004, opening the rental building six years later. The property, which also uses the address 150 Amsterdam Avenue, also includes retail units, one of which is occupied by a Polestar electric car dealership.

CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Alana Bassen reportedly brokered the deal.

Elsewhere in the city, Kalimian has been in a major feud with his nephew, Eagle Point Properties principal Justin Amirian. Amirian sued Kalimian over the management of several properties in Soho and the West Village; Amirian’s mother is a plaintiff.

New York City saw multifamily sales drop last year by 52 percent from 2022, according to Ariel Property Advisors. The period, which saw a little over $7 billion in deals, was beat only by 2020 for less investment in the last decade.

— Holden Walter-Warner