Sold: 80 Acres for $5.4 Billion

"Tishman Speyer, a New York-based property developer and owner, counts New York's Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center in its portfolio."

The Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town properties total over 11,000 units in 100 buildings overlooking the East River. The two properties, built with tax breaks and other subsidies for middle-income residents for returning WWII veterans, stretch over 10 blocks from 14th to 23rd streets. They are viewed as among the last remaining middle-class developments on Manhattan.

How the high price –- averaging $491,000 per unit, or $67.5 million per building, paid by Tishman Speyer affects the current tenants, especially the roughly 7,333 rent-stabilized units, remains to be seen.

"Ahead of the deal, the buyer was expected to convert the units into market-rate apartments or condominiums -- a move likely to be met with political resistance. New Yorkers will elect a new governor in November and the leading candidate in the polls, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, has proposed toughening existing regulations.

"We are committed to working closely with residents, elected officials and community leaders to help ensure a dynamic and vibrant future for this New York community", asserted CEO Jerry Speyer. "The thousands of tenants in rent-stabilized apartments are completely protected by the existing system. No one should be concerned about a sudden or dramatic shift in this neighborhood's make-up, character or charm."

{Ed. Note: This article will be available for non-Wall Street Journal subscribers for two weeks}