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Massive Kew Gardens Hills Apartment Complex Hits the Market

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 6, 2014 3:40pm
 The complex of 53 buildings contains nearly 1,300 apartments.
The complex of 53 buildings contains nearly 1,300 apartments.
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Courtesy of Massey Knakal Realty Services

QUEENS — A massive complex consisting of dozens of buildings in Queens is on the market — one of the largest such sales since the recession, experts said.

The complex of three-story buildings owned by Hudson Realty Capital, a Manhattan-based real estate fund manager, stretches from Kissena Boulevard to 150th Street and 72nd to 75th roads in Kew Gardens Hills, and contains about 1,270 apartments, most of which are rent-regulated, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services, which is managing the sale.

“It’s a very large transaction, not only for the area or for Queens, but for the city,” said Bob Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal.

Knakal declined to discuss the price, but according to published reports the complex of 53 buildings could fetch as much as $250 million.

By comparison, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, a 110-building complex, sold for $5.4 billion in 2006, before the market crashed.

Knakal also said that he expects a lot of interest in the sale. “The area is greatly improving,” Knakal said, adding that a growing number of buyers are currently looking to invest in Queens.

Moses Gates of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing, said that “it’s the largest portfolio in Queens" to be up for sale since the recession, a sign that the “real estate market is heating up.”

Gates said he hoped that the apartments in the complex will be able to maintain their rent–regulated status.

“We want to make sure that the market doesn’t overheat and start engaging in speculative investments again,” he said.