Brits To "Bring Along Harlem's Gentrification"
While the British campaign to rename a stretch of Greenwich Avenue is slow going (despite the endorsement of redcoat Sir Harold Evans and his Mata Hari wife Tina Brown), a shadowy evil British corporation called Dawnay, Day has bought 47 buildings in East Harlem for US $250 million.
According to the Times (UK):
Dawnay, Day's East Harlem acquisition consists of 1,137 largely one and two-bedroom flats in 47 buildings running on the North side of Central Park from East 100th Street and East 120th Street, bought from a private American seller.
The investment and management fund has also bought 7 condos at 214 E. 9th St. in the East Village, an area "populated by young bankers who wish to rub shoulders with the bohemian artist community," as the Times puts it.
Director Ian Blakeley told us by phone that he couldn't say whether they were planning to rebuild the East Village property. "It's only 7 tenants out of 1,200 so it is not a top priority," he said. Regarding Dawnay, Day's huge expansion into Harlem, Blakeley explained to us that his firm wanted to "bring along Harlem's gentrification."
The firm bought the Harlem properties at around $280 a square foot—and looks to renovate and release them at near an astounding $1,000.
