Fairhaven Apartments sold for $230M to Eagle Rock

The Fairhaven Apartments, a group of rental complexes with more than 1,600 units in Nassau and Suffolk, changed hands this week in a $230-million transaction.

The sale marks the end of an era for the heirs of Myron Nelkin, who during a 40-year span built the company he named for his wife's New England hometown of Fair Haven, Vt. He died in 1997 at age 82.

No sudden rent increases or cuts in service are planned for tenants in Fairhaven's 1,666 apartments, said Adam Seelig, president of Eagle Rock Management Llc of Plainview, which bought the operation.

He and his brother, Mark Seelig, Eagle Rock chief executive, had worked on the deal for about a year, he said. The sale closed Wednesday.

"We are the proud owners as of today. We're ecstatic," Adam Seelig said Thursday.

"This is one of the most sought-after properties on Long Island, and it's been held for the past 40 years" by the Nelkin family, he said.

Cathy Nelkin Miller, Nelkin's daughter and president of the family-owned Garden City Hotel, was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

With the Fairhaven purchase and its own 700 apartments, Eagle Rock now controls some 2,366 apartments, placing it among the larger apartment rental companies on Long Island. The largest, Commack-based Fairfield Properties, has about 5,000 units, Seelig said.

Early on, Myron Nelkin banked on the idea that Long Island's growing population could support higher-priced apartment complexes that came with air-conditioning, bigger rooms, ample closet space and private terraces.

The complexes are in Mineola, Jericho, Carle Place, Hicksville, Nesconset and Woodbury. Monthly rents at the Woodbury apartments, for example, range from $1,950 one-bedrooms to $2,700 two-bedrooms.

"Like the Nelkins, we're a Long Island family business," Adam Seelig said. "These are premium properties, and the tenants are used to good services. Hopefully we'll even improve on that."