Hawkins Way and Varde buy New School dormitory for $51.5M

Hawkins Way Capital and Varde Partners have acquired the former New School dormitory at 135 East 12th Street for a reported $51.5 million, according to Connect CRE, and plan to renovate and reposition the East Village building under the FOUND Study student-housing platform. The deal is the platform’s third Manhattan property for Hawkins Way this year, a pace that reads as platform expansion.

Managing partner Ross Walker said the firm had long hunted for the right opportunity in the neighborhood, citing the property’s location and its existing student-housing infrastructure. PWD’s prior coverage priced the 268-bed Loeb Hall at $192,000 a bed, and the reported purchase price works out to about the same figure, a fresh comp for a niche that barely trades.

Each FOUND Study acquisition in Manhattan supplies a comparable for the next one, and private capital keeps paying up for purpose-built student housing in dense urban education districts. The East Village deal suggests that bid is holding as Hawkins Way adds its third Manhattan FOUND Study property of the year.