Just before Manhattan rents started soaring at the start of the year, Blackstone Group agreed to buy a Frank Gehry-designed apartment tower in the Financial District for $930 million. Across the East River, KKR has spent more than $1 billion in the past two years to become one of the biggest owners of newer tax-exempt apartment buildings in Brooklyn. And Carlyle Group has quietly amassed a portfolio of small, mom-and-pop-style buildings in the borough worth The post Private equity firms are betting big on New York apartments appeared first on The Real Deal New York.