NYC Buildings For Sale
The site of the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue between 56th and 57th streets has six bidders, down from more than 20 bidders, including Larry Silverstein, the Related Companies and Apollo Real Estate Partners. Macklowe Properties has been assembling the site over the last decade, but now is facing foreclosure on the property. At the height of the market, the land, which can support up to 600,000 square feet, could have been purchased for $1,300 a buildable foot, but now will probably sell for less than half of that price.
Real estate firm George Comfort & Sons has agreed to purchase 1540 Broadway, between 45th and 46th streets, and Worldwide Plaza, at 825 Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets, from Harry Macklowe for $2 billion. The deal was contingent upon TV network NBC leasing in Worldwide Plaza, which has not yet happened. The buildings are still for sale for about $1.2 billion. Macklowe was forced to unload several properties when he could not pay back some short-term debt to Deutsche Bank.
The sale of Starrett City has been put on hold because the owner of the Brooklyn complex, Starrett City Associates, and federal housing officials have been unable to agree on the fair market value of future rents.
The first properties to be sold when troubled banks or real estate companies put their assets on the block are likely to be cash-generating holdings such as multi-family housing and industrial sites, predicted that the sale of real estate during the current financial crisis will be similar to what occurred under the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), which was created to dispose of assets following the 1980s savings and loan crisis.
New York Buildings sold
The Rockefeller Group Development Corporation paid $62.5 million for a six-story garage at 148 West 48th Street. The approximately 48,700-square-foot garage, on a 75-foot by 100-foot lot, is next to a building that Rockefeller Group controls through a 99-year lease executed in April. The garage site has a development potential of 90,373 square feet.
Sam Chang sold their newly opened Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Chelsea West, for $39.06 million.
Developer Harry Macklowe ceded the General Motors Building to lenders after defaulting on a loan for a $7 billion purchase secured with just $50 million down.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is to become the new landlord of some of the 148 Washington Mutual branches in New York that were recently handed over to JPMorgan Chase. According to a clause in Chase's contract to purchase WaMu's assets, the buyer gets 90 days to decide which storefronts it wants, after which the FDIC can take the remainder, and either reject the leased or sell them off to another tenant.
