Sugar Hill buys four CPW rentals for $65M

Manhattan Valley properties have 160 feet of frontage facing Central Park

By Mark Maurer

David Schwartz’s Sugar Hill Capital Partners picked up a four-building multifamily portfolio in the Upper West Side’s Manhattan Valley for $65 million — about $1,050 per square foot — in an off-market deal, sources told The Real Deal.

The walk-up properties at 471-476 Central Park West have a total of 125 apartments – mostly rent-regulated units. The cluster of buildings is located between West 107th and 108th streets, with more than 160 feet of frontage on Central Park West. All of them are five stories.

Local investors Benjamin Hadar and Leonard Solomon, who control Upwest Co. LLC, have owned the buildings since the 1980s, records show.

Collectively, the buildings span 61,875 square feet and offer an additional 30,000 square feet in air rights. Therefore, the site allows for the development of a roughly 92,000-square-foot structure.

Sugar Hill’s plans are not immediately clear. A representative for the Harlem-based investment firm declined to comment. Cignature Realty Associates’ Lazer Sternhell and Peter Vanderpool, who brokered the deal, declined to comment.

Last year, Sugar Hill, led by Schwartz (not to be confused with David Schwartz of Slate Property Group), sold several of its Upper Manhattan holdings, including two Harlem rental buildings for $35.5 million and a Hamilton Heights rental for $25.5 million.