Steve Witkoff

• February 2024 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and jewelry designer Tiffany & Co., is in negotiations to acquire 745 Fifth Avenue, a 35-story tower. LVMH is competing against other bidders for the property. SL Green acquired 2 Herald Square leasehold for next to nothing; it had completed a deal to acquire a 95% stake in the leasehold at 2 Herald Square: SL Green paid $7 million to settle the property’s $182.5 million mortgage. The City Comptroller is suing Lloyd Goldman’s development company over allegations that it failed to pay the wages required …
  
  
• February 2024 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: The defaulted loan on Blackstone's 1740 Broadway is for sale after a $430 million drop in value. The $308 million CMBS loan on 1740 Broadway is on the market for roughly $150 million. Albert Kalimian’s firm put the property at 200 West 67th Street up for sale. Kalimian had defaulted on the $194 million mortgage which matured in November. The 310-unit luxury property rental income covered 87% of borrowing costs. Rialto Capital is suing Metropole on behalf of the lenders for failing to make $215 million CMBS loan payments on 681 Fifth Avenue, a 12-story building since …
  
  
• September 2023 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: Vornado weighs sale of Farley building in quest for liquidity. The Farley Building which Vornado and Related Cos redeveloped from a former U.S. Post Office was leased to Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent company, in 2020 in a 730,000 SF, 15-year deal that was a bright light for the market during the worst of the pandemic. The Metropolitan College of New York is looking to sell two of its floors at an office building at 60 West Street. Metropolitan College has struggled since the pandemic, feeling a sizable drop in enrollment. Buildings Sold: Capital One is selling a …
  
  
• August 2023 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: In the first quarter, investors spent less than $500 million buying Manhattan office properties, down from $5 billion in the first quarter of last year. Värde Partners aims to force the sale of Public Hotel. Steve Witkoff and Ian Schrager appeared to have gotten a handle on the debt at their Public Hotel after falling behind on their mortgage. Witkoff and Schrager are facing a UCC foreclosure on their equity in the 367-room hotel at 215 Chrystie Street. The partners owe more than $86 million in mezzanine debt from Värde Partners. The sale is scheduled for Sept. …
  
  
• August 2022 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings for Sale: Steve Witkoff and Ian Schrager have defaulted on their Public Hotel on the Lower East Side. The developers defaulted on their $189 million mortgage backing the 367-room hotel at 215 Chrystie Street, and are now paying a 9% penalty interest rate. Their lender, Deutsche Bank, is looking to sell the non-performing loan. Aby Rosen has put the Church Missions House for sale at $135 million, or about $3,000 per square foot. It is a six-story, 45,000-square-foot office property located at 281 Park Avenue South. Thor Equities is still trying to sell a Lenox Hill townhouse after 10 …
  
  
• March 2018 New York New Developments
• New York Major Developments: The city is moving forward with plans to make way for 4.5 million square feet of development on Governors Island. The Trust for Governors Island held its first meeting to discuss rezoning part of the island for commercial real estate development. Beauty chain L’Occitane en Provence is relocating its Fifth Avenue store of 3,378-square-foot lease at 555 Fifth Avenue. The building had an asking retail rent of $1,100 per square foot. L’Occitane’s lease is expiring nearby at 610 Fifth Avenue. Facing high costs and lower than expected profits, retailers on some of Manhattan’s most expensive thoroughfares …
  
  
• December 2017 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings For Sale: Isaac Chetrit is looking to sell off a pair of office buildings. Chetrit and partner Sioni Group are asking around $190 million and $200 million for the properties at 15 West 47th Street and 22 West 48th Street. Brookfield Property Partners is looking to sell its 2.3 million-square-foot office tower at One Liberty Plaza in Lower Manhattan, which could trade for as much as $1.6 billion. Offers on the Park Lane Hotel were due, but no buyers showed up willing to pay the $1 billion the property was expected to obtain. The 47-story hotel overlooking …
  
  
• June 2017 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings Sold: Kobe Bussan, which operates a chain of supermarkets in Japan, sold two empty lots at 439-443 West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen. The buying entity is Yaus Special Clinton District LLC. WanXin Media purchased the Midtown office building and vacant lot at 7-15 West 44th Street for $68 million. WanXin plans to develop a boutique luxury hotel and Chinese cultural center which has 90,000 buildable square feet. If approved, the hotel will include 96 rooms and restaurant space in a 19-story building, seven stories taller and nearly 40,000 square feet larger than the existing building at …
  
  
• March 2017 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings for Sale: Three Riverside Boulevard parking garages encompassing more than 228,000 square feet and 995 parking spaces are asking $65 million, or $65,300 per space. The parking garages are at the base of five condominium buildings at 80, 100-120 and 220-240 Riverside Boulevard. Developer Steve Witkoff has a federal judge’s approval to sell the Park Lane Hotel as part of an agreement to oust Malaysian investor Jho Low. U.S. District Court Judge approved plans as part of a cooperation agreement reached after Low became entangled in a money-laundering scandal. The current plan is to sell the whole …
  
  
• September 2016 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: SL Green Realty says it has shaken a pesky lawsuit that threatened to stall the construction of its office building near Grand Central Terminal, One Vanderbilt. The REIT has settled a lawsuit filed by the owner of Grand Central, which alleged that the office landlord and the city rendered his 1.2 million square feet of air rights useless when it rezoned the area. The settlement was made possible, in part, by the recent sale of a stake in Grand Central to Michael Dell’s MSD Capital. In 2012, the Witkoff Group announced it would build a new hotel at …
  
  
• November 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments The Chrysler Building just got a little greener. The Owner has received a LEED gold certification for the 1.2 million-square-foot office tower. Tishman spent two years updating the building’s energy, waste, water and maintenance systems. The upgrades include new plumbing fixtures that will cut the property’s water consumption by 64 percent; a waste-management policy that will ensure 81 percent of the building’s waste is recycled; and a 21 percent reduction in energy usage. The city’s plan to sell of three historic but outdated office buildings in Lower Manhattan, all of which would likely become luxury housing or hotels, …
  
  
• June 2012 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale Forest City Ratner is looking to find an investor to take as much as a 49 percent stake in 8 Spruce Street, the tallest residential building in New York. The 76-story, 903-unit Frank Gehry-designed building is now 80 percent occupied.Thor Equities is seeking $45 million for the three-story, 15,525-square-foot building, at 446 West 14th Street, between Washington Street and 10th Avenue that it bought for $23.4 million in 2007.Vornado Realty Trust is marketing its stakes in three New York City-area malls, as the investment trust looks to exit the sector. Vornado wants to unload a 32.4 …
  
  
• May 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments Morgan Stanley just signed a lease for almost 1.2 million square feet of space at Brookfield Office Properties Inc.'s 1 New York Plaza in lower Manhattan. The bank, which currently occupies about 816,000 square feet at the building, will expand by an additional 337,000 square feet. The agreement is the largest office lease for a single building in New York since 2008. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to modernize Midtown East office buildings has become a legacy issue as the mayor’s reign whines to a close. Bloomberg wants to re-zone the area bounded by Third and Fifth avenues and …
  
  
• October 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings sold TIAA-CREF purchased the 280,000-square-foot office building 475 Fifth Avenue from Barclays Capital Real Estate for $144 million or about $514 per square foot. A joint venture of real estate developer Joseph Moinian and Westbrook Capital acquired 475 Fifth Avenue, located at 41st Street, in 2007 for $160 million, but lender Barclays took the property back in 2009 through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.Stonehenge Partners has closed on the 93-unit apartment building at 1143 Second Avenue and 60th Street. Stonehenge paid KFJ Realty $47 million for the six-story building, which includes 15,000 square feet of retail …
  
  
• September 2011 New York New Developments
• Major NYC Developments The London-based Children's Investment Fund inked its first New York City real estate investment this month, providing $250 million in first mortgages for Macklowe Properties' condominium conversion of the luxury apartment building 737 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill. The fund, makes investments in a wide range of industries globally, and gives a portion of its profits to children's charities around the world. "It is the first direct real estate investment we have made in New York," New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is hindering federal efforts to negotiate a foreclosure settlement with Wall Street banks on …
  
  
• June 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Companies such as Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust are in negotiations with potential tenants and may even proceed with construction without securing leases. Boston Properties may be the first to break ground by the end of 2011. The company is finalizing negotiations to anchor a 1 million-square-foot tower at Eighth Avenue and 55th StreetRelated Companies CEO Stephen Ross said he was confident about attracting tenants for the first phase of the development, which will include four million square feet of office space. "I think we're going to surprise people," he said. "We're talking to nine tenants at …
  
  
• October 2008 New York New Developments
• New DevelopmentsThe Bush administration proposed granting the Treasury Department the ability to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from private firms. The proposal would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. The government also put together a plan that makes investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley holding companies, giving them access to Federal Reserve Bank of New York funds and putting them under stricter regulations. Boutique firms, like Lazard and Evercore Partners, are seizing clients and staff from fallen rivals. Nationwide, financial companies have announced 103,000 layoffs this year. Democrats proposed taxpayers could receive an …