Hillcrest Acquisitions closed on an off-market purchase of a 24-building package in Harlem and Washington Heights for $148,500,000.
Hillcrest purchased the portfolio from Brooklyn-based Galil Management, formerly E&M Associates.
The buildings are all walk-up properties with the exception of one elevator building, and in total, contain 586 residential units, six retail spaces, and roughly 425,000 s/f.
The buildings span from W. 135th Street to W. 173rd Street, and are mostly located between Broadway and Amsterdam. The addresses include 570 W. 156th Street, a five-story elevator building with 55 residential units, 539 W. 156th Street, 541 W. 156th Street, 2228 Amsterdam Avenue, 506-526 W. 173rd Street, 2254 5th Avenue, and 24-28 St. Nicholas Place.
Galil Associates originally purchased the portfolio in February 2013 from Coltown Properties for $75 million. In the last two years, they were able to increase rents with market growth and renovations throughout the portfolio.
According to Steven Vegh, president of Westwood Realty Associates and the sole broker in the transaction, the purchase price equated to $250,000 per residential unit.
“With the Columbia University expansion and hospital, these areas continue to gentrify and rents continue to rise,” Vegh said in a press release.
The new buyers plan to continue operating the buildings along with the market growth with a long-term ownership.
In April, Galil Management purchase a mixed-use building in Hamilton Heights from Sugar Hill Capital Partners for $25.5 million. The six-story building, at 3621 Broadway, is an elevator building with 47 residential units, eight retail spaces, and an art studio.
Prior to the company changing its name to Galil Management, the firm sold the last of its properties in the Bronx for $31 million, and in March, sold an eight-building Northern Manhattan portfolio for $44 million.
