Massey Knakal Tapped for Upper East Side Trophy

NEW YORK CITY-RFR Realty Corp. has put its 27-story rental apartment property at 300 E. 64th St. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side up for sale, GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned. Massey Knakal Realty Corp. confirms that it’s been retained on an exclusive basis to market the multifamily tower, with chairman Robert Knakal and Guthrie Garvin, director of sales, leading the sales team.

A source familiar with the 102-unit property says it’s expected to sell quickly at a price of more than $100 million. The source says RFR is motivated to sell by a desire to take advantage of the currently low interest rates, “which exert upward pressure on price and downward pressure on cap rates.” This past December, a multifamily asset of comparable size jointly owned by RFR and Madison International Realty, the 22-story Eastbridge Landing at 377 E. 33rd St., traded to Archstone for $131 million.

Further, there’s the matter of tight supply in the face of increasing demand. Manhattan apartment vacancies are hovering in the low single digits; on the Upper East Side, for example, the vacancy rate was 1.35% in January, according to Citi Habitats.

RFR developed 300 E. 64th in 1996 in a joint venture with Davis & Partners. The property was renovated to condominium standards in 2008. Rents start at $1,950 per month for a studio and range up to approximately $8,300 per month for a three-bedroom unit. The property’s 142,000-square-foot tally includes slightly less than 9,000 square feet of commercial space.