Blackstone buys NY's Stuyvesant Town complex

New York

BLACKSTONE Group LP reached an agreement to buy New York's Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, a deal that would put Manhattan's biggest apartment complex in the hands of the world's largest private equity firm and maintain some affordable housing at the property.

Blackstone, working with Canadian investor Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc, will pay about US$5.3 billion for the 32 hectare enclave, said a person with knowledge of the agreement, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. That's just under the record US$5.4 billion that prior owners Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc paid nine years ago before defaulting on the mortgage in 2010 and walking away from the property, marking one of the biggest collapses in the last decade's real estate boom.