10/23/2015

RSP buys 58 units at the Sheffield from Fortress for $25M

Rey Mashayekhi

Nearly 600-unit Midtown condo tower rescued from foreclosure in 2009

Private equity giant Fortress Investment Group sold 58 separate units at its Sheffield condo tower to RSP Companies for $25.25 million – more than the $20 million it spent to acquire the Midtown building at a foreclosure auction in 2009.

Fortress closed on the sale of the units, at 322 West 57th Street in Midtown, to Columbus Circle-based RSP Companies on Aug. 20, according to property records filed with the city Friday. Of the 58 units, seven are designated for storage.

Neither Fortress nor RSP could be reached for comment, but sources with knowledge of the transaction said the units in question are rent-stabilized holdovers from the Sheffield’s time as a rental building and that RSP could sell them as condos as they are vacated.

Midtown-based Fortress, led by co-founders Wesley Edens and Randal Nardone, acquired the 58-story property for a mere $20 million at a foreclosure auction in 2009, after developer Kent Swig defaulted on around $100 million in loans used to finance the building’s condo conversion.

The Sheffield, formerly known as Sheffield57, held over 800 rental units before its conversion. The building now holds 581 condos, of which 76 are currently rentals.

Bulk acquisitions of condo units in New York City hit roughly $277 million in 2014 – up from $174 million the previous year – and stood at $132 million through the first seven months of this year.

Fortress subsidiary CWCapital Asset Management recently agreed to sell the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Village apartment complex to the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge in a deal valued at $5.3 billion.