Extell Cashes Out of East Village For $97.5 M.Gary Barnett
Extell Development has pulled out of the East Village. The development giant, which purchased 17 buildings in the East Village last year, has quietly sold them all to the elite real-estate fund Westbrook Westbrook, city (1990 pop. 16,121), Cumberland co., SW Maine, an industrial suburb W of Portland; founded 1657, inc. as a city 1891. Its manufactures include shoes and paper and wood products. An industrial park (opened in 1969) is in Westbrook. Partners for $97.5 million—a hefty heft·y adj. heft·i·er, heft·i·est 1. Of considerable weight; heavy. 2. Rugged and powerful. See Synonyms at heavy. 3. increase from the $72 million that Extell paid just 18 months ago. The sales were recorded in city records. The buildings are all small residential ones that include a total of 259 apartment units, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Propertyshark.com. When Extell purchased the East Village portfolio, it was a curious move: The development giant is in the business of high-end high-end adj. Informal 1. Appealing to sophisticated and discerning customers: a high-end department store; high-end video equipment. 2. development, not collecting rent checks in old five-story walk-ups. Whatever its plans, it appears to have abandoned them. “It was a great opportunity to sell,” said George Arzt, a spokesman for Extell. When asked why the company bought the properties in the first place, he said it was a “good opportunity to pick up some properties we wanted.” Mr. Arzt wouldn’t comment on whether Extell planned to flip the properties all along, or whether bigger plans for a major development were scrapped. In any event, wherever Mr. Barnett’s company goes, it seems to carry controversy with it. One of its biggest developments, the Ariel East and West on 100th Street and Broadway, has touched off rezoning efforts on the Upper West Side, with residents complaining that the high-rise condos are out of place in the neighborhood. In the East Village, the community board organized a meeting soon after Extell’s buy became public, because of “concerns about funny demolitions or evictions,” said Susan Stetzer, the district manager of Community Board 3. Ms. Stetzer said that Extell officials didn’t share any plans about potential developments and assured tenants there would be no demolitions. Since then, she said, she’s heard nothing from Extell or from tenants. But before tenants gather round in Tompkins Square Park Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre (42,000 m²) public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by to offer a sigh sigh (sī), n an audible and prolonged inspiration followed by a shortened expiration. sigh of relief: Westbrook Partners, the new buyer, is in many ways a carbon copy of Extell. Westbrook trades primarily in commercial real estate, trading $100 million buildings in Europe, and was part of the team that sold 450 Lexington Avenue to Istithmar for $600 million last year. It was also reportedly one of the leading bidders for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Peter Cooper Village is a residential development in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which is located east of Gramercy Park, between First Avenue and Avenue C, stretching between 20th and 23rd Streets. . Next page > 
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