Three months after taking over the property, Blackstone has announced the name of its own recently formed management company that will handle the day-to-day operations at Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village. This is following CompassRock’s official exit from ST/PCV on April 1.
Unlike CompassRock, the new company, called “StuyTown Property Services,” will — as its name suggests — just be for the management of ST/PCV, according to a Blackstone spokesperson.
In other management changes, along with four recent plumbing hires, StuyTown Property Services has also added three new people to its resident relations division. Those employees will be responsible for cleanliness inspections, maintenance issues and hands-on resident relations, said Blackstone spokesperson Paula Chirhart.
“The termination of the previous management agreement and the formal establishment of StuyTown Property Services marks a major milestone for all residents,” said Nadeem Meghji, senior managing director for Blackstone. “We are pleased to have Rick (Hayduk) and his StuyTown Property Services team in place and ready to serve the community.”
In January, resort and residential industry veteran Rick Hayduk was hired as Stuy Town’s new general manager. He was also the first person in that role to move into the community since the Met Life days.
This is the second apartment complex CompassRock has lost from its portfolio in recent months. CompassRock, CWCapital’s management arm formed in 2012, had been managing the 1,229-unit Riverton Houses in Harlem while CWCapital oversaw the property following an over-leveraged deal. Then last December, Riverton was sold to A&E Real Estate, and according to a spokesperson, Daniel White, A&E prefers to do its own management of the properties it owns.
This decision, however, was endorsed by tenants. Cynthia Allen, the chair of the Riverton Tenants Association, said, “We had a lot of issues with CompassRock, a lot of people getting dragged into court erroneously. They were the worst.”
A&E has kept some of the office employees, she noted, “because they’re familiar with the day-to-day operations, but it’s a lot more organized than CompassRock.”
As for Stuyvesant Town, ST-PCV Tenants Association President Susan Steinberg also wasn’t sorry to see the company leave.
“I think Blackstone has shown itself to be a superior project manager,” she said. “CompassRock, I think Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village is out of their league. They had some properties in Denver, but nothing of this magnitude.”
A voicemail left for CompassRock wasn’t immediately returned, nor was a request for comment made to Andrew MacArthur, managing director for CWCapital.
