Equity Residential buys luxury properties

Equity Residential, the largest publicly traded owner of apartment buildings in the U.S., bought two luxury-apartment towers in New York City and agreed to acquire a third for a total of $475 million.

Equity Residential completed the purchases of River Tower, a 38-story apartment building on Manhattan's East Side, and 777 Sixth Ave., a 32-story property in the Chelsea neighborhood, on Jan. 29, according to a statement today. The Chicago-based company will also buy Longacre House, a 26-story tower in Midtown.

"This transaction is yet another example of our ongoing strategy to add high-quality assets to our portfolio in core markets that position the company to benefit from improving apartment fundamentals," said David J. Neithercut, Equity Residential's president and chief executive officer.

The three properties have a total of 910 units, 23,339 square feet of retail space and 50,000 square feet of parking space. The purchase price equates to about $470,000 per home and $545 per square foot of rentable apartment space, the company said.