The Riverton, Latest Collapsed New York Housing Icon, Auctioned for $120M

clipped from blogs.villagevoice.com The Riverton, Latest Collapsed New York Housing Icon, Auctioned for $120M By Eileen Markey, Thursday, Mar. 11 2010 @ 12:49PM Under the gaze of Moses, King Solomon, Hammurabi, and Abraham Lincoln (in a mural on the ceiling of the New York County Courthouse rotunda), the latest sad drama in the city's real estate bust played out this morning with minimal fanfare. Speaking slowly and deliberately, the auctioneer finished his work in a matter of minutes. Today's victim: The Riverton, a complex of 12 buildings and 1,230 units on 135th Street in Harlem. Built as a black answer to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village -- both of which excluded African Americans in their early years -- the Riverton was a point of pride for generations of Harlem residents. About 75 people -- tenants, activists, potential buyers and attorneys -- crowded in a tight circle on the marble floor of the rotunda, and saw the Riverton sold for $125 million to a trustee for CW Capital Asset Management