An Insider's View Of The Biggest Real Estate Deal of all Time

The New York Times offers a fascinating insider's view of the massive $5.4 billion purchase by Tishman Speyer Properties of 80 acres of Prime Manhattan land -- Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

2 minute read

January 1, 2007, 9:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"It was, as Daniel Garodnick, a New York city councilman who lives in Peter Cooper Village, put it, a "defining moment in [New York] city history." International players who had single-mindedly pursued glamorous landmarks like the Chrysler and G.M. buildings in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago were loudly proclaiming their appetites for humble, "plain vanilla" apartment buildings and a willingness to pay up -- way up -- to unlock future profits in the sprawling Manhattan properties.

"...For all of the deal's accolades, it also illuminates the financial leaps of faith that real estate buyers are increasingly taking. Once, buyers priced properties based on existing cash flow. Real estate executives say that calculus would have generated a $3.5 billion price for the two Manhattan complexes that Tishman Speyer bought. But buyers are now looking to the future, building models of anticipated cash flow when determining how much to bid. The Stuyvesant Town deal, with its $5.4 billion price tag, reflects the new math, and analysts and rival bidders say the hefty price means that the deal will not show a profit for as many as six years."

"Though the announcement that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were for sale initially escaped much public attention, it sent the real estate industry into a frenzy. And for good reason: a sizable chunk of Manhattan was now up for grabs."

The land is a "relic of a bygone urban era when Mr. Ecker and MetLife conceived of a project where "families of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in park-like communities and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service... Over the years, MetLife sold many of its residential complexes, but it held on to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, which were only blocks from the company's landmark headquarters on Madison Avenue."

..."The pending sale created a panic among many tenants of the two complexes, where nearly three-quarters of the apartments have regulated rents at a third to half of market rates. An apartment can be decontrolled after it becomes vacant, or the rent reaches $2,000 a month and the existing tenants' income rises above $175,000 over two years. As a result, MetLife had brought about 27 percent of the units in the two complexes to market rates. Tenant activists feared that a new buyer paying nearly $500,000 per apartment would be financially pressed to accelerate the process and transform the complexes by jacking up rents."

Sunday, December 31, 2006 in The New York Times

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

May 23 - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

May 23 - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder