A&E Real Estate Buys Back Sergey Brin's Stake In NYC Real Estate Fund For Pennies On The Dollar
The third-richest person in the world’s bet on rent-stabilized apartments in New York City nearly went bust.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin sold his shares in a real estate fund that has almost 5,900 units in the city for pennies on the dollar. The fund’s manager, A&E Real Estate, bought the stake in the properties from the Brin-affiliated Amphitheatre LLC, Bloomberg reported.
Public records don’t show how much A&E paid to buy back the shares, but the gross value of Brin’s stake was around $79M. It is also unknown how much of the fund Brin had or the amount he invested.
An A&E Real Estate spokesperson confirmed a transaction with a long-term investor without disclosing the investor’s identity.
“In November of last year, A&E bought out one of our long-term investors, who was willing to accept six cents on the dollar on their original equity investment in order to divest itself from the New York City multifamily sector,” the A&E Real Estate spokesperson told Bisnow by email.
Brin's family office, Bayshore Global Management, didn’t immediately respond to Bisnow's request for comment. Brin is worth $280B, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Like many New York City landlords, A&E Real Estate has faced several challenges in recent years.
The A&E Real Estate spokesperson said the company’s operating expenses have increased by nearly 80% over the last decade. But the city’s Rent Guidelines Board has approved increases of just over 15% for one-year renewals during that same period.
The Rent Guidelines Board last week delivered on New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents for the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. The board paused increases on more than 40% of units across the city.
During the first weeks of the Mamdani administration, A&E Real Estate agreed to a $2.1M settlement to address hazardous conditions and tenant harassment issues across 14 buildings. In addition to the civil penalties, the firm was required to correct more than 4,000 violations in the buildings as part of the settlement.
The company is also in jeopardy of losing a 53-building New York City portfolio to foreclosure after defaulting on a $506.3M CMBS loan. Wells Fargo, acting as trustee for the CMBS bondholders, filed a motion June 18 for summary judgment in the preforeclosure lawsuit.
Wells Fargo said it was owed $594M as of June 12, according to the filing.
Another of A&E Real Estate’s New York City portfolios was in a foreclosure dispute in October, but the firm reached a deal to keep the properties. The company agreed to a $165M loan modification to prevent Santander Bank from seizing the 1,268-unit apartment portfolio.
