For over 70 years, StuyTown has been a staple of New York City's East Village - with thousands of New Yorkers continuing to call the 80 acres home.
StuyTown was originally planned as a post-war housing development during the early 1940s in anticipation of the returning World War II veterans.
The East Village complex was developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and was based on earlier developments: Parkchester in The Bronx and Riverton Square in Harlem. Former Metropolitan Life president Frederick Ecker said StuyTown would make it possible for generations of New Yorkers "to live in a park - to live in the country in the heart of New York."
Construction of StuyTown took place between 1945-1947, encompassing 110 buildings and 11,250 apartments.
On the first day of its initial offering, the property received 7,000 applications; it would collect 100,000 apps by the time of the first occupancy. The complex's first tenants, two World War II veterans and their families, moved into the first completed building on August 1, 1947.
In October 2006, MetLife sold StuyTown to Tishman Speyer. The new ownership implemented significant capital projects on the property. Tishman Speyer relinquished control of the property in 2010. CW Capital remained the owner from 2010 to 2015 when they sold the property.
Today, the property is controlled by Blackstone/Ivanhoe Cambridge, which uses StuyTown Property Services as StuyTown's property manager. StuyTown is now home to over 30,000 residents in Manhattan's East Village.