The New School Sells Student Dorm for $52M

The New School’s oldest dorm in the city has sold to a West Coast real estate investor that’s on a tear in New York City student housing. 

Loeb Hall at 131 East 12th Street sold for $51.5 million to Hawkins Way Capital and joint venture partner Varde Capital, according to public records. Hawkins Way took out a $40.5 million mortgage with Emigrant Bank as part of the deal, records show. 

Beverly Hills-based Hawkins Way plans to renovate the 286-bed dorm as part of its “FOUND Study” strategy, which involves buying up school real estate in markets with limited supply to provide “high-quality, affordable housing options,” according to a release related to the deal.   

Following renovations, Hawkins Way plans to provide a mix of direct and master leases. 

On its student housing website, Hawkins Way already lists rooms available for rent at the former New School dorm. For a spot in a two-bedroom, Hawkins Way is charging $2,300 for a two-bedroom per month for the fall semester.

For a similar room, the New School is charging $10,500 per student for the fall semester, which works out to roughly $2,600 per month per student.  

Hawkins Way and the New School did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The property was not publicly listed, but in the spring, the university removed the dorm from its campus housing options for the upcoming school year, according to reporting from The New School Free Press, a student-run publication. Administrators also began asking residents to allow their dorms to be staged, photographed and toured around that time. 

The deal marks the third acquisition in the city this summer as part of Hawkins Way’s student housing strategy. 

Earlier this month, the firm spent $28 million for 81 E. 3rd St., a privately-owned property with 28 student housing units and 13 market-rate units. In June, the investor bought a residence hall at 117 West 70th Street on the Upper West Side from the AMDA College of the Performing Arts for $80 million. As part of that deal, the school signed a deal to lease the property back from Hawkins Way for the next three decades. 

The deal is also not the first between Hawkins Way and the New School.

In 2024, it bought a 122-unit property in Manhattan on West 20th Street for $30 million from the New School. That property now appears as another student housing option on Hawkins Way’s student housing website. 

Last year, it also bought a 492-key former Holiday Inn at 99 Washington Street in the Financial District for $155 million, which also now appears on its student housing website. 

The firm has also unloaded some properties in the city to schools, selling a former DoubleTree by Hilton hotel to the City University of New York for $126 million last year. 

The firm also has student housing properties in Oakland and Berkeley, as well as Boston, Newark and Providence. 

In 2024, it paid $46.25 million to buy a 159-unit student-oriented apartment building in Berkeley.

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