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Ballooning costs and strict limits on rent increases have spurred losses for many investors in New York City apartments. Among them: the world’s third-richest man.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin offloaded his stake in a New York real estate fund for pennies on the dollar last year after its bets on rent-stabilized apartments soured. Amphitheatre LLC, an entity affiliated with Brin, sold shares in the fund that holds nearly 5,900 units back to its manager, A&E Real Estate, according to documents filed in December.
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“A&E bought out one of our long-term investors, who was willing to accept six cents on the dollar on their original equity investment to divest itself from the New York City multifamily sector,” a representative for A&E said in a statement.
Brin’s family office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers, has increased the pressure on landlords. The city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted Thursday to freeze increases on the city’s approximately 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, a key plank of Mamdani’s 2025 campaign.
But A&E’s troubles started long before the latest blow. Like many landlords, it has faced new restrictions on the ability to raise rents following legislation passed in 2019. The pandemic then made it harder to collect tenant payments, while borrowing costs and insurance premiums climbed sharply. The firm has faced foreclosure on dozens of apartment buildings and found itself targeted by tenant activists and local housing agency lawyers, who sued it over living conditions in its properties including mold and bedbugs.
The University of California said last year that it had written down the value of a $115 million investment in the A&E fund by 50%. The landlord has also attracted scrutiny from Mamdani, who in January criticized it for “overt cruelty” to tenants and a history of violations.
In its statement, A&E said that the challenges facing owners of rent-stabilized apartments stem largely from the 2019 legislation, which constrained owners’ ability to pay for needed building repairs. The firm has seen operating expenses increase by more than 78% over the last decade, far outpacing rent growth, it said. A&E is currently carrying arrears of $84 million in unpaid rent.
“The simple and deeply troubling fact for renters is that institutional capital – both equity investors and lenders – are fleeing New York City’s rent-stabilized apartment sector,” the A&E representative said. “They understand New York is in a doom loop.”
Public records don’t reveal how much Brin, 52, invested with A&E, what percentage of the fund he owned or how much A&E paid to buy back his stake. The gross value of his stake in the properties was roughly $79 million, the records show. Brin has a net worth of $268 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Multiple Lawsuits
A&E was founded in 2011 by John Arrillaga, Wendy Eisenberg and her husband Douglas Eisenberg. Arrillaga has roots in Silicon Valley, where his father became a billionaire developing corporate campuses for the likes of Apple Inc. and Google.
The firm grew quickly, focused on housing for middle-class tenants. By 2021, it had more than 15,000 apartments under management, making it one of the city’s largest landlords, with a portfolio that ranged from 10-unit rentals to sprawling apartment communities in Harlem and Kew Gardens Hills.
But difficulties piled up. In early 2025, Wells Fargo & Co., acting as trustee for commercial mortgage-backed securities investors, started foreclosure proceedings against A&E on a $506 million loan. A representative for Wells Fargo declined to comment.
A&E also landed in the crosshairs of New York officials. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development has sued the company repeatedly, alleging that some of its apartments contained hazardous mold, bedbugs, peeling lead paint and broken pipes.
An A&E representative said the firm has invested more than $800 million to replace boilers, improve elevators and make other capital improvements in its buildings, many of which were in a state of disrepair when it acquired them. It has cleared 35,000 building violations, many dating from before it acquired the properties. It has also worked with lenders to secure loan extensions and modifications.
In January, the city announced a $2.1 million settlement involving A&E properties to address tenant harassment and hazardous conditions in 14 buildings. Around the same time, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams named A&E executives New York’s two “worst” landlords over their management of 60 buildings. A&E held 41 of those buildings through the fund that Brin invested in.
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