New York City Buildings sold
Developer Continuum Company is to put $40 million into the troubled One Madison Park residential development and finish up the project, after reaching a deal with the developer and creditors. The deal, which is contingent upon bankruptcy court approval, would fund the costs of a proposed restructuring on a loan from lender iStar. The lender gained control of the building in April, after asserting that the builder had failed to pay it $12 million in interest between October 2009 and February 2010, and owed upwards of $200 million.Larry Gluck's Stellar Management purchased the 374-unit Windermere Hotel at 666 West End Avenue for $68 million. The 23-story building currently contains both market-rate and stabilized hotel rooms and apartments.
Anglo Irish Bank acquired unsold shares of Rector Square, the troubled Battery Park City condominium, during a public auction at the New York state Supreme Court, with a winning bid of $82.75 million. Anglo Irish, the senior lender at the 304-unit building at 225 Rector Place, plans to resell the building to new investors. The bank wanted to make sure the property had stable ownership before going forward.
Edge Fund Advisors and HSBC Alternative Investments are believed to have acquired a 49 percent stake in the Bertelsmann Building at 1540 Broadway in a deal valued at $254 million or $575 per square foot. CBRE acquired the office condominium portion of the property in March 2009 from Deutsche Bank for $355 million. Detuche Bank acquired the distressed property from developer Harry Macklowe.
Two duplexes in the Time Warner Center building at 25 Columbus Circle have gone into contract in a single deal for $57.5 million. Hedge fund financier Douglas Von Allmen had sold his 3,500-square-foot duplex for around $15.7 million to a Russian tycoon, and that the merger of that unit with neighbor Steven Feder's 4,500-square-foot pad was not happening. The duplexes went into contract in one transaction. The combined space will feature three kitchens, eight bedrooms, 12 marble bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling windows with views of Central Park and an in-apartment elevator.
The $40 million mortgage on the stalled Tribeca condominium project has been taken off the auction block, after a foreign investor inked a deal to buy the note. The condo's site at 369-371 Broadway between White and Franklin streets was considered one of the last few remaining development sites in the neighborhood.
Glenwood Management is in contract to buy a parcel of land across from Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus for $100 million and has plans to build a high-rise residential tower there. The Amsterdam Avenue property is near the site of another proposed residential tower, for which Fordham had been seeking proposals from developers, including Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development, until a recent deadline.
Brooklyn real estate investor Abraham Leser has sold off a piece of the former Victory Memorial Hospital, recouping nearly half the $44.9 million purchase price for the entire property while retaining ownership of the closed hospital building. Hamilton Park Realty paid $20 million for the nursing home component of the Bay Ridge hospital complex.
A group of investors has signed a contract to purchase 1330 Sixth Avenue, the 40-story office building, that Canadian lender Otera Capital took back from Harry Macklowe last year for around $400 million. The price, though far below the $500 million Macklowe paid for it in 2006, would likely put the deal amongst the largest of the year for New York City office buildings, and could be a sign of the commercial property market's rebound.
Following an approval from bankruptcy court, the $19.35 million sale of the eight-year-old Chelsea Art Museum to the Albanese Development Corp. will allow the museum to continue operating at its West 22nd Street site, rent-free, until the end of 2011. After that date, the museum will need to find a new home.
NYC Buildings For Sale
Developers at several New York condominiums such as the Sheffield are reviving higher commissions and other incentive plans to sell units. When the Sheffield, at 322 West 57th Street, was reopening earlier this year after a conversion, the owners had nearly 330 units to sell.Developer Joseph Moinian has reached an impasse in a battle to block Deutsche Bank and Related Company from foreclosing on his 3 Columbus Circle office tower and demolishing the property, in favor of a new tower anchored by Nordstrom's department store. Related Chairman, Steve Ross, and lawyers for Moinian squared off in New York State Supreme Court, while the two executives sat impassively, watching what amounted to a legal sparring match with the Judge repeatedly injecting a wry sense of humor to keep the showdown from turning into a three-ring circus.
Commercial and residential landlord Fisher Brothers has placed a $48 million bid in bankruptcy court to buy the Upper West Side apartment building, Park Columbus, from Yair Levy’s failed effort to convert the rental property to condominiums. The 95-unit apartment building at 101 West 87th Street at Columbus Avenue is being sold in Manhattan federal bankruptcy court. An entity called 101W 87th LLC made the bid of $48 million.
Joseph Moinian’s 72 Madison Avenue has just been hit with a foreclosure lawsuit. Alleging that Moinian missed multiple payments on his $22 million mortgage there, creditors filed to take back the 12-story office building. Moinian took out the mortgage in 2007, but ran into trouble when the economy worsened, cutting into his rental income at the property.
The New York Helmsley Hotel has drawn 15 different bidders. The 773-room hotel clears its first round of bidding. Several of those potential buyers made offers exceeding $300 million, the second round of bidding for the hotel at 212 East 42nd Street will be due by mid-December. The aggressive bids for the Helmsley are a good sign for the overall hospitality market in the city.
Morris Moinian has put a six-story residential building at 364 West 18th Street on the market with an asking price of $36 million.
