Irving Langer’s E&M Associates sells Harlem apartment portfolio to Sugar Hill Capital for more than $250M

Irving Langer’s E&M Associates, one of the largest multifamily owners in the city, is selling another large portfolio of Harlem apartment buildings.

Sugar Hill Capital Partners bought the collection of buildings from E&M for more than $250 million, sources told The Real Deal.

The buildings are concentrated on the blocks just north of the northwest corner of Central Park, between Manhattan and St. Nicholas’ avenues.

“As a Harlem-based real estate company that integrates sustainability, preservation, design and the arts in historical properties, we feel a responsibility to our neighbors and the local community to steward these buildings with great care for years to come,” Jay Solomon, Sugar Hill’s chief creative officer, told TRD.

Nearly two dozen sales – valued at a few million dollars each – have started to hit public records over the past two days. Those that have been recorded so far for a combined value of more than $87 million. But sources familiar with the package said  it totals about 50 buildings valued more than $250 million.

The most expensive of the properties to show up in public records so far is the 24-unit building 120 West 112th Street, which traded for $8.2 million.

Sugar Hill declined to comment on the total size of the portfolio. Solomon said the company will bring to the portfolio its program that provides free or affordable studio workspace to local artists.

Representatives for E&M could not be immediately reached for comment. Steven Vegh of Westwood Realty Associates brokered the deal. He declined to comment.

Earlier this year, E&M sold a 21-building portfolio in Harlem to Isaac Kassirer for $85 million.

Further north in Manhattan, E&M earlier this year was looking to sell a nine-building portfolio in Washington Heights with an asking price between $200 million and $215 million.

Sugar Hill, meanwhile, has been relatively quiet on the acquisitions front as of late. In September, the company paid $5.6 million to buy a Crown Heights building at 932 Eastern Parkway, but it’s been some time since the firm purchased a large portfolio.

In March of last year, Sugar Hill paid $10 million to buy an Inwood building at 4848 Broadway from A&E Real Estate Holdings.