Insurance giant New York Life this week scored a record-breaking $625 million deal to sell the East Side’s Manhattan House apartment complex.
The full-block development at 200 E. 66th St. went for $1.072 million per apartment, the most ever paid.
The building, which has 583 apartments, is being sold to the team of N. Richard Kalikow’s Manchester Real Estate and Jerry O’Connor’s O’Connor Capital Partners.
While neither could be reached for comment, it would be expected that they would “work” lower rents up, while filing for a condo conversion.
Sellers New York Life developed the superblock building of five white towers in the early 1950s, setting it between 65th and 66th streets and Second and Third avenues.
The property, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Mayer & Whittlesey, has balconies, and some units have fireplaces.
It also encompasses a garage as well as a dozen retail spaces that are home in part to Club Monaco and BeBe.
New York Life confirmed the sale to the venture but not the terms of the deal, which will close in the fourth quarter.
Sources said just fewer than half the units are rent-stabilized, with an average rent of about $1,800.
The rest are at market rents that zoom all the way to a penthouse pad for $20,000 a month.
The Queen of Skyscrapers, Darcy Stacom, and her CB Richard Ellis team of Bill Shanahan and Paul Leibowitz marketed the property around the world, but the two locals bagged it.
CBRE declined comment and Stacom could not be reached.
This is Kalikow’s first major purchase since he split with then-Max Capital partner Adam Hochfelder.
It is also O’Connor’s first blockbuster city buy in some years, although his Peabody Funds targets upscale urban multi-family buildings and its Web site implies it may have a stake in Trump World Tower.
In the last 20 years, O’Connor has acquired $10 billion in property around the globe for itself and investment funds.
One of the other contenders was Yair Levy – whose purchase of The Sheffield with Kent Swig for $418 million through Stacom set the last record, although the per-unit price was just under $500,000.
Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ RFR Holdings, as well as the 1980’s converter Gerry Gutterman, were other bidders for Manhattan House.
Address for success
The Manhattan House at 200 E. 66th St. has been bought by Richard Kalikow for $600M – the most ever paid for a residential building in Manhattan.
Other recent apartment building sales
Building Date Size Seller Buyer Price Per unit
Sonoma, 300 E. 39th St. Winter 2004 254 units Related Cos. Archstone-Smith $152M $600,000
71 Broadway Fall 2004 238 units World-Wide Holdings partnership Equity Residential $100M $420,000
771 Madison Ave. June 2005 37 units plus retail Unknown Vornado Realty Trust $158M
The Aston 800 Sixth Ave. June 2005 266 units Adellco and Cornerstone Archstone-Smith $195M(contract) $800,000 (80% market-rate)
River Terrace, 515 E. 72nd St. August 2005 Macklowe C&K 410 units $365M $890,000