STUYVESANT TOWN — The new owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village closed on the deal to buy out the sprawling complex on Friday, the developer announced.
Blackstone and its partner in the deal, Ivanhoé Cambridge, a real estate investor, finalized the $5.45 billion deal months after the sale was announced in a flurry of political fanfare.
Advocates of the sale pitched it as a major win for affordable housing after the buyer promised the city that it would keep at least 5,000 units available to below-market-rate tenants for the next 20 years.
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“We are proud to have entered into long-term partnership with the PCVST community and the City of New York,” said Jon Gray, Blackstone's global head of real Estate. “We look forward to working together with them to preserve what makes this community so special.”
Politicians, tenant leaders, and the new buyers have said the sale will bring stability to the housing complex, which has been in a state of uncertainty since at least 2006, when Tishman Speyer and investment firm BlackRock inked a $5.4 billion deal to buy the properties from original owner MetLife.
The 2006 deal fell apart when the buyers ran out of money during the recession, and the creditors who funded the deal, represented by CWCapital, took charge of the complex in 2010.
A representative for CWCapital did not respond to requests for comment.
Susan Steinberg, president of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association said she was relieved by the deal.
“The closing and transfer ends a very turbulent decade,” Steinberg said. “So far Blackstone’s outreach to tenants has been exceptional, and we certainly have had a much better outcome than what could have happened.”
Steinberg and the tenants association have largely supported the deal since it was announced in October, but she said she won’t hesitate to make sure the new owner keeps its word regarding affordability and transparency.
“There will come times when Blackstone and the Tenants Association are sitting on opposite ends of the table,” she said. “If they’re doing something that we think is not correct, we will not hesitate to let them know.”
