Carlyle Group New York City Real Estate

UPDATED Feb. 13, 2023: The Carlyle Group in 2022 was the most active buyer of commercial real estate in New York City by the number of deals, and the 10th in dollar volume, according to a PincusCo ranking. Carlyle Group closed 91 deals with a total of $512 million.

The top signatories for the Carlyle Group in New York include Jason Hart, a managing director based in New York, and Carter Martin, an associate with the law firm Allegretti & Associates.

The company, based in Washington, D.C., owns at least 173 commercial properties in New York City with 2,065,691 square feet, 1,907 residential units and a city-determined market value of $508 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Invesco Real Estate, Invesco, and Santander Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 62 percent of the 2,065,691 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 44 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 33 percent of the space.

The map below illustrates the 91 properties in all asset classes that Carlyle Group purchased in 2022 for a total of $512 million, with properties acquired for $2 million to $5 million in blue, from $5 million to $10 million in fuchsia and $10 million and up in red.

2022 acquisitions of small rentals

Carlyle Group was without peer in 2022 as the most active buyer of the smaller asset classes of multifamily rental properties, those with 3 to 10 units, mostly covered by the tax classes 2a (four to 6 units) and 2b (seven to 10 units).
There were 1,063 properties sold in New York City last year with three to 10 units in individual sales. PincusCo identified the buyer for more than 800 of those transactions, and no other firm bought more than 15 of these buildings, and no one firm had the same level of concentration Carlyle Group exhibited in its acquisition strategy in three neighborhoods.
In Bushwick, of the total number of rental buildings with three to 10 units sold, Carlyle Group bought 34 percent of them, or 26 of the 74 sold. In Bedford Stuyvesant, it acquired 22 percent of the properties sold, or 17 of the 76, and in Ridgewood, it bought nearly 16 percent of the transferred rentals in that range, or 12 of 48. No other firm was close, as most only bought one or two in a neighborhood.
Only a few firms came close, for example Peak Capital Group bought five properties in this category in Greenpoint, according to the PincusCo data.

2022 buying patterns of all asset classes

Last year, Carlyle Group’s purchases of all asset classes were concentrated in Brooklyn, in a handful of neighborhoods, reflecting the large number of small rental buildings discussed above.

Carlyle Group NYC acquisitions by neighborhood in 2022: PincusCo
Carlyle Group NYC acquisitions by neighborhood in 2022: PincusCo

In terms of investment timing, the firm tended to close in the third month of a quarter, with June and December being the most active, followed by September.

Carlyle Group NYC acquisitions by month in 2022, PincusCo
Carlyle Group NYC acquisitions by month in 2022, PincusCo