- What Brookfield and Park Tower Group have listed two multifamily properties in the Greenpoint neighborhood
- Why The 359-unit One Blue Slip and the 421-unit Two Blue Slip could fetch about $879m
- What next A deal could be one of the largest apartment trades ever in the borough
A Brookfield partnership is shopping two adjacent apartment towers in Brooklyn, in what could be one of the borough’s largest multifamily trades ever, Green Street News can reveal.
Brookfield and its partner, Park Tower Group of New York, have listed the 359-unit One Blue Slip and the 421-unit Two Blue Slip, overlooking the East River in the Greenpoint neighborhood. The buildings are almost fully leased and benefit from long-term tax abatements.
Bids are expected to come in around US$640m ($879m), or US$820,000/unit. JLL is representing the partnership. It’s unclear if the firms will consider offers for the individual buildings.
Just three apartment deals in Brooklyn have topped the package’s estimated value, according to Green Street’s Sales Comps Database. Two closed in the first half of this year, with Silverstein Properties paying US$672m for Brooklyn Tower, at 9 DeKalb Avenue, and a partnership between Meadow Partners and Spitzer Enterprises paying an estimated US$650m to US$675m for the property at 416-420 Kent Avenue.
The largest trade in borough history was the US$905m sale of the Starrett City affordable-housing complex to a Rockpoint joint venture in 2018. That property, where former President Donald Trump was a minority owner, encompasses 5,881 units across 40-plus buildings.
Roughly 25% of the apartments at One Blue Slip and Two Blue Slip are studios, with one-bedroom floor plans representing 50% of the mix, two-bedroom units making up 20% and three-bedroom units comprising 5%.
Affordable units account for 101 of the apartments at One Blue Slip and 127 apartments at Two Blue Slip, reflecting a tax abatement that runs through October 2055. The agreement would save a new owner roughly US$80m to US$100m for each tower over its remaining life, according to marketing materials.
Apartments at One Blue Slip average 695 sq ft, with rents for market-rate units averaging US$4,549. The 30-story tower was built in 2018 and has 1,300 sq ft of street-level retail space that is fully leased to a pet-sitting service and a florist, with a weighted average remaining lease term of 7.5 years.
Units at Two Blue Slip average 751 sq ft, with rents for market-rate apartments averaging $5,280. The 40-story property was built in 2020. It has 850 sq ft of retail space that is fully leased to a coffee shop with nearly eight years remaining on its contract.
Part of the pitch is that a buyer could boost rents for the market-rate units, as tenants pay rates some 14% below prevailing levels for the greater Brooklyn waterfront. Rents equate to a 53% discount to comparable Manhattan properties as well. Bidders additionally have been told that tenants are likely to absorb rent increases well, given that the average household income across the buildings tops US$200,000.
The properties’ apartments have floor-to-ceiling windows, 9-foot ceilings, stainless-steel appliances, walk-in closets, terraces and washer/dyers. Amenities at One Blue Slip include a 7,000 sq ft terrace with kitchens, as well as coworking space, event space, a fitness center and a pet-grooming center. Two Blue Slip has an outdoor pool with cabanas and a bar, a playroom, coworking space, a lounge and a garage.
Some 90% of the units at One Blue Slip have views of the adjacent East River and the Manhattan skyline, with 70% of the apartments at Two Blue Slip offering similar views.
The offered buildings are part of the Greenpoint Landing project, which at completion will encompass 5,500 residential units on 22 acres. Park Tower, working with L+M Development Partners, separately constructed several other buildings in the project. Park Tower brought in Brookfield as a partner on One and Two Blue Slip in 2015.
The towers are across Newtown Creek from Long Island City in Queens, another area that has seen a wave of development in the past 10 years.
