Swedish apartment owner Akelius continues to amp up its US investment, closing this week on it’s biggest purchase yet.
The company announced today (Tuesday) that it has acquired 301 East 21st Street in Gramercy Park for $167.5 million.
CBRE brokers Darcy Stacom and Paul Leibowitz sold the 199-unit building on behalf of long-time owners, the Tausik Brothers.
Akelius said it plans to “improve the property to the Akelius concept of Better Living.ˮ
Akelius owns 50,000 apartments in prime metropolitan locations in countries such as Sweden, Germany, the UK, Canada, and France.
Earlier this year, it paid $12.66 million for its first US apartment investment at 1153-1159 President Street in Crown Heights, a 41-unit property. Last week, it purchased 144-150 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side and Akelius will close on a fourth property tomorrow (Wednesday) in Crown Heights in Brooklyn
“We see ourselves as cherry pickers when it comes to acquisitions and acquire only properties that suit our requirements regarding location, condition, suit mix, building type etc,ˮ said Jordan Milewicz, Akelius Country Manager US, noting that the company has made no formal decision on it’s estimated US spending.
“These properties are difficult to get and hence it is at this moment difficult to make a statement on how many properties we will acquire this year.ˮ
Akelius has made no secret that it is indeed looking, in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Harlem and the Bronx, telling REW previously, “We really like Brooklyn, we’re in major markets around the world so our focus has always been to go into the largest markets and Brooklyn has a lot of population growth. Our key focus is access to public transportation.”
Sweden is following on the heels of its neighbor Norway, which invested over $880 million in the New York real estate market in 2013.
In 2014, the country’s federally-run Government Pension Fund of Norway purchased $7.6 billion worth of property globally, including a $401.9 million piece of the 40-story 11 Times Square.
Akelius’s operations in the United States will be executed under their subsidiary, Akelius US LLS.
