NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump and a group of investors plan to sell a parcel of Manhattan riverfront land and three buildings for $1.8 billion, the biggest residential sale in city history, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The land, the former site of a rail yard, will be sold to the Extell Development Corp. and Carlyle Group, said the source, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is not final.

Details of the transaction were reported in Wednesday editions of The New York Times.

The 77-acre parcel of land stretches from 59th to 72nd streets on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, along the Hudson River. The area is known as Riverside South or Trump Place.

Extell is buying the three rental buildings on the side, plus lots to build eight more apartment houses, the Times reported. Four condominium buildings at the site are not part of the deal, the newspaper said.

Representatives of the Trump Organization, Extell and the Carlyle Group either could not immediately be reached or said they had no comment on the Times report.

The rail yard property has a troubled past: Trump had gained control of it in 1974 and again in 1982, both times frustrated by intense community opposition to his plans to develop there.

A group of Hong Kong and Chinese investors paid $82 million in 1994, when Trump was in debt, for a $300 million mortgage on the land. Development of the apartment buildings started in 1997.

News of the sale brought expressions of relief from Trump’s critics.

“Even though they’re paying an exorbitant price in this overheated market, we hope the new owners will be more responsive to the community,” Madeleine Polayes, a leader of the Coalition for a Livable West Side, told the Times.