If We Split It 25,000 Ways, It Comes Out To $200,000 Per Person
Posted: September 6th, 2006 | Filed under: Manhattan, Real EstateAlthough some call it a mission impossible, tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village said yesterday they’ll try to buy the mammoth Manhattan housing complex.
Metropolitan Life has put the 110 East Side apartment buildings up for sale, reportedly for $5 billion, and the tenants plan to compete with well-heeled developers to make a bid.
Nearly three-quarters of the apartments are protected by rent stabilization, but many of the 25,000 residents fear they’ll eventually be priced out of their homes if the 11,200-unit bastion of the middle class is bought by a private developer.
Some real estate experts said a tenant buyout of this size is unprecedented and faces enormous odds.
“I’ve never heard of one of this magnitude,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, Manhattan real estate appraisers and consultants. “It’s too complex. Too many things can go wrong.”
But one organizer of the residents’ effort, City Councilman Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan), insisted that a tenant buyout can be successful with the help of private and public pension funds, governmental assistance and “socially conscious private sector investors.”
“And yes we expect to be able to put together a bid that is competitive and one that would be viewed favorably by MetLife and its shareholders,” said Garodnick, who lives in Peter Cooper Village.