Toll Brothers purchases Manhattan property, plans 15-story luxury development

Toll Brothers, Inc. has announced the purchase of a property located at 132 East 65th Street, at the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Plans call for a 15-story building with approximately 25 luxury residences, with sales expected to commence in the summer of 2011.

Douglas C. Yearley, Jr., the Company's chief executive officer, stated: "The acquisition of this premier property on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is another example of our ability to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities that are emerging in the current challenging real estate market. With over $2 billion in available capital, we have been purchasing notes and properties across our various product lines in stages ranging from unimproved land to partially completed projects. We are also purchasing portfolios through our recently formed Gibraltar Capital and Asset Management venture, which in July 2010 partnered to acquire a $1.7 billion FDIC portfolio of nearly 300 assets. Gibraltar also gives us the capability to use Toll Brothers' broad expertise and national footprint to underwrite and opportunistically acquire a wider variety of distressed real estate assets."

Rick Hartman, the Company's regional president in charge of the Metro NY urban market stated: "We are pleased to continue expanding our presence in the New York City market where our City Living operations has ongoing projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and across the Hudson River in Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey.

"We are actively looking for additional opportunities in the metro New York City urban market, which has outperformed nearly all our other territories across the U.S. With our capital, our ability to move quickly, and the brand we are building in New York City, we are a logical call for distressed owners, banks and others looking to get out from under distressed projects."