752 West End Avenue (source: PropertyShark)
David Bistricer’s Clipper Equity and the family-owned Rieder Holdings closed on the purchase of the 197-unit Upper West Side apartment building at 752 West End Avenue from Westbrook Partners for $72.36 million.
The purchase of the former hotel built in 1931, known as the Paris, which closed today, is one of the most expensive apartment sales so far this year. The Real Deal reported in July that the building was in contract.
Bistricer, a managing partner with Brooklyn-based Clipper Equity, confirmed the purchase and said the new owners would make improvements in the structure and did not plan on a condominium conversion.
“We are long-term owners. Right now we will keep it as a rental. That is the plan,” he said. “We think it is a great location, a beautiful building. It was well-maintained by Westbrook and we are going to take it to the next level.”
The sale has not yet appeared in city property records.
Private equity firm Westbrook apparently took a $13 million loss on the approximately 161,000-square-foot building located at 97th Street, which it bought in August 2007 for $85.8 million, city property records show. Westbrook declined to comment.
Aaron Jungreis, president of investment sales firm Rosewood Realty Group, was the broker on the purchase and Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon, senior managing directors at Eastdil Secured, were advisors to Westbrook.
The only larger sales in Manhattan this year were the portfolio of three former Macklowe Properties apartment buildings for $475 million to Sam Zell’s Equity Residential; a $125 million purchase by New York University of a dorm; and the $125 million foreclosure auction of Riverton Houses.
Bistricer was a bidder on the purchase of the 5,881-unit apartment project Starrett City in Brooklyn, but the $1.3 billion sale was blocked in 2007 by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. Bistricer also bid on the Riverton Houses at the foreclosure auction of the property in March, but was outbid by the lender, CWCapital Asset Management.
The Rieder family began in New Jersey and owns and manages about 1,000 apartment units in the area, Samuel Rieder, a principal with the company, said.