Josh Gotlib, Meyer Orbach Go On $380M Spending Spree

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Josh Gotlib and Meyer Orbach are rapidly adding to the real estate investment trust they launched less than a year ago.

This week, GO Residential REIT announced that it had agreed to acquire three multifamily properties in Manhattan.

The firm is spending $380.5 million on the collective acquisitions, including $150.5 million to acquire the Ivy Tower from Friedman Management and $230 million to buy 411 West 35th Street and 444 West 35th Street in Hudson Yards from Maddd Equities and Joy Construction, according to the Commercial Observer.

Ivy Tower at 350 West 43rd Street in Midtown West will be the REIT’s first unencumbered asset, meaning there will be no debt attached to the building upon acquisition. Developed in 2003, the property features 321 luxury units, including 64 rent-stabilized units that will transition to market-rate status in 2036.

Amenities at Ivy Tower include a fitness center, a resident lounge, a game room, a catering kitchen and a sun deck. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the two Hudson Yards properties — completed in the years immediately before the pandemic — combine for 304 rental units and include amenities like fitness centers, resident lounges, collaborative workspaces and landscaped outdoor terraces.

Credit and investment firm Värde Partners provided the owners of The Lewis at 411 West 35th Street with a $96.5 million loan to refinance the property last summer. The acquisition of the two Hudson Yards properties is also expected to close in the second quarter.

“We are strengthening the balance sheet, expanding our unencumbered pool and leaning into assets we believe can outperform across cycles,” Orbach said in a statement.

GO Residential launched last year on the Toronto Stock Exchange with a $2.7 billion portfolio of more than 2,000 Manhattan multifamily units. The REIT’s holdings initially included a five-property portfolio of luxury high-rises in Manhattan, including the 761-unit Copper Apartments, once the American Copper Buildings, which Gotlib and Orbach purchased in 2022 for $837 million.

In the summer, GO Residential acquired RXR’s preferred equity position in One East River Place, and One and Two Sutton Place North for $339.5 million.