# New York Mega Skyscraper Deals



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*US home sales sag, but mega skyscraper deals soar *

WASHINGTON, Dec 14, 2006 (AFP) - The US housing market might be faltering, but prices for glitzy Manhattan skyscrapers have soared sky-high in recent months on booming demand for landmark properties. 

The deal-making has seen New York's large scale property market transformed into a giant Monopoly board game as one skyscraper swapped hands for a record 1.8 billion dollars after a big apartment complex was traded for 5.4 billion dollars. 

Analysts say 2006 has become a blockbuster year for such acquisitions. 

The Kushner Companies on Monday announced the purchase of a 41-story Manhattan skyscraper for 1.8 billion dollars, a record price tag for a single building deal in the heart of the Big Apple. 

"It's an elite location. So, I don't think it's a high risk kind of investment at all," said Steve Solomon, a company spokesman. 

"The office market is very strong right now, rents are going up, vacancies are low in New York, there's not been very much speculative building," he said. 

Solomon's assessment is supported by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) which said in a December report that office demand is benefitting from limited supply and low vacancy rates. 

"The fundamentals are strong. There's nothing to me that indicates there is a bubble. There are certainly signs that valuations are pretty strong, but I don't see any of the early warning signs" of a bubble, said Brad Case, a NAREIT vice president of research and industry information. 

"The real hallmark of a bubble is a disconnect between valuations and fundamentals and we don't have that in the commercial real estate sector," he said. 

Kushner bought the 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper, whose office space is rented by law firms and banks, from the Tishman Speyer property group. 

Tishman, however, has also been fueling demand for large New York properties. 

In what is believed to be the biggest real estate deal in US history, a Tishman-led investment group announced in October that it had bought the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village development from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for 5.4 billion dollars. 

The deal netted Tishman and its partner BlackRock Realty 11,232 apartments. 

It followed Tishman's agreement to buy the Met Life landmark office building, which is located near the Fifth Avenue skyscraper it has just sold, in April for over 1.7 billion dollars. 

Such deals have made 2006 the most active year for mergers and acquisitions in the real estate investment trust industry's 46-year history. 

A total 37 large merger and acquisition deals were sealed, announced or are pending this year through November, compared to nine such deals in 2005 and just six comparable transactions in 2004, according to NAREIT. 

The year's deals soared to a combined value of 117.2 billion dollars, compared to 14.8 billion a year ago and 14.7 billion in 2004, the association said. 

One of the biggest transactions was unveiled by EquityOffice Properties Trust, America's largest publicly held office building owner and manager with a portfolio of over 590 buildings, last month. 

Under its terms, EquityOffice agreed to be acquired by the Blackstone Partners private equity fund for 36 billion dollars. 

Industry analysts believe Blackstone will sell parts of EquityOffice's vast portfolio in a bid to recoup some cash. 

However, overseas demand is also pushing up the price for a US skyscraper. 

A Dubai government fund, with very deep pockets, has snapped up several prime New York buildings this year. 

The Istithmar fund bought the W Hotel Union Square for 285 million dollars in mid-October, months after purchasing a 37-story building from Boston Properties in June for 1.2 billion dollars. 

Property analysts at the Friedman Billings Ramsey investment bank notched up their share price expectations this week for Boston Properties to 117.50 dollars from 106.00 dollars in the wake of the transaction. 

Istithmar's hotel deal swiftly followed its purchase of a Beaux Arts-style building in New York's famed Times Square for 300 million dollars and two other large property deals earlier this year. 

However, the Friedman analysts cautioned investors that changes in the US economy could dent demand and decrease office rents. 

For now though, it appears that the property magnates want to keeping rolling the dice.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Pension fund takes over Macklowe skyscraper in NY *

NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - A Manhattan office tower bought by property investor Harry Macklowe for $498 million nearly three years ago was taken over on Wednesday by one of its lenders, which made the only bid at an auction -- for $100,000.

Canada's Otera Capital Corp, which holds a $130 million mezzanine loan on The Financial Times Building at 1330 Avenue of the Americas, entered the minimum bid for the 40-story building, which is about 65 percent occupied.

Otera, a subsidiary of Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Canada's largest pension fund, filed to foreclose on the property after Macklowe defaulted in January.

The result of the auction allows the pension fund to take ownership of the building, which serves as the U.S. headquarters for the financial newspaper owned by Britain's Pearson Plc , and assume the $240 million mortgage.

Macklowe bought the building, which sits between 53rd and 54th Streets, in 2006.

Mezzanine debt is secured by the sponsor, often an incorporated entity created just for the purchase and ownership, not by the building.

Such loans are used to fill the gap between the equity put up by the sponsor and the mortgage secured by the property.

German American Capital Corp, an affiliate of Deutsche Bank AG , holds the $240 million senior mortgage on the property. Otera issued the largest of the mezzanine loans.

Property analysts expect many more foreclosures in the U.S. commercial real estate sector, which boomed from about 2004 to 2007 when sky-high prices were fueled by easily available debt financing that was underpinned by overly optimistic forecasts for rents, occupancy and future sale prices.

Although there was only one bid, several representatives from other real estate companies and pension funds attended the auction to survey the procedure and assess the situation.

The building now is not worth the amount of the first mortgage, said a leading Manhattan commercial real estate broker, who did not want to be identified for commercial reasons.

The auction is part of the foreclosure process in New York, as well as in other states.

Last month, Boston's John Hancock Tower was sold at a foreclosure auction for $660 million, about half of what Broadway Partners paid for it in 2006.

In that auction, the building went to Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners, which has been buying up the mezzanine debt at distressed prices since June 2008.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Caisse to take Manhattan
Expected to buy New York office tower today *
Bloomberg News
22 April 2009

A 40-storey office tower next to New York's Museum of Modern Art is set to be taken over today by a unit of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec in the second foreclosure auction of a U. S. skyscraper in less than a month.

The pending seizure of 1330 Avenue of the Americas is another step in the dismantling of New York developer Harry Macklowe's property empire. The building, between 53rd and 54th Streets, is topped by a peach "FT" logo signifying the Financial Times newspaper published by tenant Pearson Inc. The auction follows the March 31 sale of Boston's John Hancock Tower to Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners.

The foreclosures are being triggered by defaults on mezzanine loans, a type of property financing that proliferated during the takeover boom that ended in 2007. More auctions may follow as mezzanine lenders foreclose on borrowers that relied on short-term debt to pay for acquisitions, said Daniel Rubock, a senior vice-president at Moody's Investors Service.

"Mezzanine loans are the front guard of the capital stack and they're the ones that are going to be vulnerable first," Mr. Rubock said. "We're going to see more of these mezzanine loans have problems."

Mr. Macklowe bought 1330 Avenue of the Americas, or Sixth Avenue as it is sometimes known, for US$498-million in December, 2006, closing the same day as Broadway Partners bought the Hancock Tower and nine other buildings for US$3.3-billion. Since then, Mr. Macklowe and Broadway have become twin symbols of the real-estate crash because they defaulted after spending billions on buildings purchased with short-term debt.

To finance 1330, Mr. Macklowe got a US$240-million senior mortgage from Deutsche Bank AG and a US$130-million mezzanine loan that was later sold to Cadim, a unit of the Caisse.

Cadim later transferred the loan to an affiliate called Otera Capital when the Caisse, as it's known, reorganized its real-estate finance division. Mr. Macklowe defaulted on the mezzanine loan in January.

Mezzanine loans, which fill the gap between the senior mortgage and the borrower's equity, became popular during the takeover era as buyers sought more debt to finance record purchases and banks tried to earn additional fees. Borrowers typically took out mezzanine loans with the expectation they would refinance them later. Mr. Macklowe and Broadway, among others, were blocked after the credit crisis froze debt markets.

Caisse spokeswoman Claire Fiset and Macklowe spokesman Steve Solomon declined to comment.

Investors such as Macklowe Properties and Broadway Partners used short-term financing in part because they sought to match the debt with their projected holding period, often less than five years.

"If that's your investment strategy, you can't really finance the purchase with long-term fixed-rate debt without triggering a prepayment penalty when you want to sell in three years," said Kevin O'Shea, managing partner and head of the U. S. real-estate practice at New York-based law firm Allen & Overy LLP. Mr. O'Shea represents Otera Capital.

In 2007, Mr. Macklowe began a renovation of 1330 Avenue of the Americas. The same year, he borrowed an additional US$7-billion from Deutsche Bank to buy seven other Manhattan office towers from Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust. Mr. Macklowe invested just US$50-million of equity in the seven-building purchase. He ended up losing control of those buildings as well as selling his flagship property, the General Motors Building, to repay lenders.

"Macklowe had so little money in the game," said Mark Zytko, co-chief executive officer of Mesa West Capital, a commercial real-estate lender based in Los Angeles. "If values went up, he was a huge winner, but only a small decrease in value crushed him."

Few other bidders for 1330 are likely to emerge, said Mr. O'Shea. Debt financing remains scarce and office rents and occupancy rates have fallen in the recession.

Banks aren't willing to lend enough to enable Mr. Macklowe to pay off the existing debt as real-estate values have fallen substantially since he acquired the property, according to Mr. O'Shea and property investors. Otera can also credit the unpaid balance of the US$130-million mezzanine loan so it has a head start on other bidders.

Mr. Zytko estimates values of U. S. office buildings have fallen between 20% and 40%, making it impossible for many borrowers to refinance even if credit markets were unfrozen.

The 1330 building is about 31% vacant, with 161,840 square feet (15,000 square metres) available for lease, according to Macklowe Properties' Web site. The building has about 525,000 square feet and three underground parking levels with space for about 225 cars, according to Macklowe Properties.

The Caisse, which oversees $120.1-billion, posted a record loss of $39.8-billion, or 25%, on its holdings last year on writedowns tied to insolvent Canadian commercial paper.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*THE HOTEL FLATIRON. 23 SKIDOO! 
INVESTOR HAS A SUITE PLAN TO REINVENT ICONIC BLDG.*
26 January 2009
New York Daily News

AN ITALIAN real estate investor has sealed the deal to buy a majority stake in the Flatiron Building in a quest to turn the landmark into a world-class hotel.

The Rome-based Sorgente Group has bought just over 50% of the iconic structure and plans to keep buying more.

Time magazine reported the deal had been done last summer, but negotiations continued and an agreement was made final only this month.

Sorgente Group officials would not say what they paid for their share of the building, estimated to be worth $190 million.

"This is one of the world's most spectacular trophy properties," said Sorgente CEO Valter Mainetti. "We will treat the Flatiron like the work of art that it is."

That includes tapping an Academy Award-winning lighting designer to illuminate the triangle-shaped building like a sculpture in a museum, he said.

Sorgente plans to continue increasing its ownership share in the building over the next decade, but plans to transform the building into a hotel will have to wait about 10 years until remaining tenants are bought out. Book publisher St. Martin's Press is the primary tenant.

The city won't stand in Sorgente's way. The Fifth Ave. and 23rd St. location is already zoned for a hotel, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission said it's a go as long as the stunning facade is not modified.

Built in 1902 by architect Daniel Burnham, the Flatiron Building was the world's first steel-frame skyscraper.

The 22-story building soon became one of the most recognizable structures on Earth, appearing on more postcards than any contemporary architectural wonder.

Sorgente's Historic & Trophy Buildings Fund acquires prestigious structures globally. The company recently bought and sold an interest in the Chrysler Building and owns a number of architecturally significant buildings and hotels in France and Italy.

GRAPHIC: BUILDING A LEGEND

Location:175 Fifth Ave.

Built: 1902, by architect Daniel Burnham

Height: 285 feet (22 stories)

Width: At its narrowest point, just 6 feet

Structure: A steel-framed, geometrically perfect right triangle

Flatiron name: Originally named the Fuller Building, the name was changed to reflect its flattened, ironlike shape.

Flatiron in film: Featured as the Daily Bugle building in the "Spider-Man" movies.

Fun fact: The skyscraper's aerodynamic shape creates powerful wind tunnels on 23rd St. and Fifth Ave. known as the "Flatiron winds."


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Deutsche Bank in deal to sell skyscraper *

NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to sell a skyscraper that will bring an end to real estate developer Harry Macklowe's disastrous bet on the New York office market, a source familiar with the deal said on Thursday.

Worldwide Plaza, the last of seven New York office buildings that Macklowe bought for $7 billion from Equity Office Properties Trust when the U.S. commercial real estate market peaked in early 2007, is being sold to a group of investors led by RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons, the source said.

Representatives from RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons could not immediately be reached for comment.

Macklowe's purchase of the seven buildings was done concurrently with the Blackstone Group's $39 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust. The sale of the company by chairman and founder Sam Zell was seen as the height of the U.S. commercial real estate market that has quickly collapsed because of the lack of debt financing available for new loans.

To finance his purchase, Macklowe obtained a $5.8 billion bridge loan from Deutsche and a riskier recourse loan from Fortress Investment Group LLC . But within a year, the credit markets began to dry up and Macklowe could not secure permanent financing to repay the bridge loans.

Almost a year from the date he purchased the buildings, Macklowe defaulted on the loans and turned over the buildings, which also included 850 Third Avenue, Park Avenue Tower and 1301 Avenue of the Americas, to Deutsche Bank.

The failed deal also forced Macklowe to sell the General Motors Building, one of the most prized in the city, to repay Fortress. Macklowe bought the GM building in 2004 for a then-record $1.4 billion and sold it for $2.8 billion to Boston Properties , whose chairman is publisher Mort Zuckerman.

A price for the 50-story, 1.5 million square foot building on Eighth Avenue and 49th Street was not disclosed. The building, whose tenants include law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, is about half empty.

When Macklowe purchased the building, the mortgage was more than $800 million. But since then, experts have estimated that values may have fallen by 30 percent. The lack of sales has made valuing buildings a fuzzy art.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Next Loss in A Hard Fall: AIG's Iconic Skyscraper *
4 June 2009
The Washington Post

New York City was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, and companies were abandoning the crime-ridden metropolis for offices in New Jersey and Connecticut and Long Island. But a growing insurance company named American International Group cast its lot with the city's future and bought a skyscraper at 70 Pine St.

Over the next three decades, AIG would grow into a global giant, operating in more than 130 countries, only to crash spectacularly during last fall's financial crisis. Now, as it struggles to pay back billons in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the company has agreed to sell its iconic New York headquarters, according to people familiar with the deal.

The art deco building on Pine Street is one of the city's tallest, rising 66 stories and towering nearly 1,000 feet above lower Manhattan's financial district. AIG plans to complete the sale of the building and another nearby at 72 Wall St. by summer's end, sources said.

The company confirmed the sale yesterday but declined to provide details about the buyer or the selling price. But a person familiar with the deal said the buyer was a foreign company. Experts have estimated the sale of the headquarters at about $100 million, far below what it likely would have commanded before layoffs consumed Wall Street and the real estate market collapsed.

"It's kind of the classic New York skyscraper," said Daniel Abramson, professor of art history at Tufts University and author of "Skyscraper Rivals: The AIG Building and the Architecture of Wall Street." He added: "If there are images of the city that stand for it, the AIG building is one of those."

The steel-framed skyscraper, clad in masonry, was finished toward the end of a jazz-age building boom that ended during the Great Depression. It was completed in 1932 to house Cities Service Co., later known as Citgo.

It featured state-of-art design for its time -- double-decker elevators, hot-water heating and a sleek lobby of marble and polished steel. A soaring spire tops the structure and glows high above the city at night. A small observatory enclosed entirely in glass offers breathtaking panoramas of Manhattan.

In 1976, it caught the attention of Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, AIG's chief executive at the time.

"We were desperate for more space," he recalled. "We were growing and growing. We grew into the building quickly. I believed New York City would be the nexus of where to be. It was a tremendous buy. We bought it for $15 million."

Mayor Abe Beame held a news conference to thank AIG for its willingness to resist the exodus and remain in the city.

"It's a great symbol. It's too bad," Greenberg said of the pending sale. "I don't see the logic in selling your head office building, which is an image around the world, in the midst of a real estate depression. It doesn't make any sense."

But AIG spokeswoman Christina Pretto said the sale is right for the company. "It makes sense from an expense standpoint and from a space standpoint," she said.

A person familiar with the deal said AIG will have the right to occupy the headquarters through 2010. It will vacate the Wall Street building, which is connected by a skywalk, by year's end.

In addition, the insurer is in the early stages of drafting a relocation plan but expects to remain anchored in lower Manhattan, even as the company shrinks.

"Nothing lasts forever on Wall Street," said Abramson, the Tufts professor. "Every one of the buildings has changed hands. AIG lasted longer than most."


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*AIG to sell NY buildings for $150 mln-source *
23 June 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc agreed to sell two downtown Manhattan buildings, including its headquarters, for a total of $150 million, a source familiar with the matter said.

The two buildings, which are located at 70 Pine Street and 72 Wall Street, are being sold for for $100 per square foot, the source said, requesting anonymity because the price has not been publicly disclosed

AIG declined to comment.

Earlier this month the broker, CB Richard Ellis Group Inc , said a consortium including Youngwoo & Associates, a New York investment firm, and South Korean bank Kumho Investment Bank had agreed to buy the two buildings.

AIG expects to keep employees in the Pine Street building through the end of 2010, while those at the Wall Street location will be there through the end of this year.

AIG's headquarters at 70 Pine Street are in a 66-story building topped with a Gothic-style spire. It was the tallest building in downtown Manhattan prior to the building of the World Trade Center.

Both buildings, which are connected by a skywalk, were constructed in 1932 and have been owned and operated by AIG since the 1970s.

The sale is part of a larger divestiture program by AIG, as it looks to repay U.S. taxpayers after a series of bailouts in which the federal government committed some $180 billion to AIG's rescue, including about $85 billion in loans.

AIG's shares were up 4 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $1.43 during morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Deutsche Bank skyscraper sale deal falls apart-WSJ *

June 23 (Reuters) - A deal to sell a New York City skyscraper formerly controlled by real estate developer Harry Macklowe has collapsed, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a statement released by the brokerage representing the seller, Eastdil Secured.

On June 4, Deutsche Bank AG agreed to sell the building, Worldwide Plaza, to a group of investors led by RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons for an undisclosed amount. 

An Eastdil spokeswoman declined to say why the deal fell apart, the paper added.

Worldwide Plaza was the last of seven New York office buildings that Macklowe bought for $7 billion from Equity Office Properties Trust when the U.S. commercial real estate market peaked in early 2007.

To finance his purchase, Macklowe obtained a $5.8 billion bridge loan from Deutsche and a riskier recourse loan from Fortress Investment Group LLC .

Almost a year from the date he purchased the buildings, Macklowe defaulted on the loans and turned over the buildings, which also included 850 Third Avenue, Park Avenue Tower and 1301 Avenue of the Americas, to Deutsche Bank.

According to the paper, the now-defunct agreement involved Deutsche Bank converting its $880 million mortgage on the property into a mix of about $165 million in equity and an undisclosed amount of debt.

Deutsche Bank and representatives from RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Pfizer Is Said to Agree to Sell New York City Office Building to TIAA-CREF*
By David Levitt, Sree Bhaktavatsalam and Shannon Pettypiece - Jul 20, 2010
Bloomberg

Pfizer Inc., the drugmaker cutting costs after buying Wyeth, agreed to sell a New York skyscraper to TIAA-CREF, said two people with knowledge of the transaction.

The deal for 685 Third Ave. in Midtown sets the price at $180 million to $190 million, one of the people said. Both declined to be identified because the transaction isn’t complete.

The deal would be at least the seventh for a Manhattan skyscraper in the past three months, showing increased confidence among buyers that the city’s office market may have reached bottom. U.S. commercial real estate prices rose for the second straight month in May, Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday.

“That reflects the demand and competition,” Robert Bach, chief economist for Grubb & Ellis Co., a Santa Ana, California- based commercial property broker, said in a telephone interview about the Moody’s report.

Manhattan real estate owners sold $2.92 billion of commercial property in the first half, up 70 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from New York-based research firm Real Capital Analytics. About $1.42 billion of those sales were for office buildings, up 62 percent from a year earlier.

Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, told New York officials in April it planned to sell the 634,000 square-foot Third Avenue tower as it consolidates operations.

A Pfizer official declined to comment yesterday.

Firing Workers

The company has been firing workers and shutting facilities following its $68 billion buyout last year of Madison, New Jersey-based rival Wyeth. It has said it will cut 19,000 jobs, close eight manufacturing plants and eliminate six research centers as it seeks to lower costs.

Pfizer is also bracing to lose patent protection next year on its top-selling product, the Lipitor cholesterol pill, which generated $11 billion in 2009 sales.

In 2003, the New York-based drugmaker said it planned to spend $1 billion over 15 years to expand in the city and add jobs. Since then, it has fired 40,000 employees worldwide in addition to the 19,000 it plans to shed after buying Wyeth.

The company already stopped receiving city benefits under a deal intended to lure companies to relocate or expand in New York. It may have to refund tax breaks and pay penalties of as much as double the $12 million it got in public benefits, David Lombino, spokesman for the city Economic Development Corp., said in May.

Teacher’s Role

TIAA-CREF, founded in 1918 as a pension fund for professors, is the largest provider of retirement plans for employees of academic, medical and research institutions. The firm manages about $426 billion and also sells mutual funds and education-savings plans.

It made its first real estate investments in 1947, according to information on its website. The firm says it has more than 400 real estate investments in the United States and Europe with equity of about $15 billion as of September 30.

“We continually seek to improve the quality of our real estate portfolio through carefully identified, high- quality acquisitions,” said Abby Cohen, a spokeswoman for TIAA-CREF.


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## dark_shadow1 (May 24, 2009)

Does somebody actually read hkskyline's posts?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

9 posts and 2,963 read counts. Yes, there are a lot of readers lurking around.


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## dark_shadow1 (May 24, 2009)

hkskyline said:


> 9 posts and 2,963 read counts. Yes, there are a lot of readers lurking around.


That's views not reads- I viewed this thread as well but did not read all of those long articles.


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## krkseg1ops (Mar 19, 2009)

^^ what did you expect, a mile-high tower project in nyc?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

dark_shadow1 said:


> That's views not reads- I viewed this thread as well but did not read all of those long articles.


Doubt people will come in here to read everything, or not read anything at all .. all 2000+ of them.


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## spotila (Oct 29, 2004)

Definately read a lot of these, yes. Keep them coming hks


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Bank Of America Seeks More New York City Office Space -NY Post *
25 August 2010
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is looking for up to 1 million square feet more of office space in Manhattan, the New York Post reports Tuesday.

BofA has requested proposals from landlords both in midtown and downtown Manhattan to replace roughly 1 million square feet it has in some older buildings including 1185 Sixth Ave. and 114 W. 47th St., where leases expire in a few years.

The Post says 1 World Trade Center, the 2.6 million-square-foot skyscraper under construction by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, may be one of BofA's primary downtown targets for office space.

Sources said the North Carolina-based bank prefers that at least half of its relocation space be at a newly minted address with features similar to those of its main tower at 1 Bryant Park, including LEED-certified environmental design, advanced electronic technology and relatively column-free floor plates.

Full story at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busine...bofa_eyes_space_at_wtc_mgxhdVIkdfYdUGCBsaj3mM


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## Turbosnail (Dec 8, 2004)

One thing I don't get about 1 World Trade Centre is that Beijing Vantone Industrial Company have agreed to lease floors 64 and 69. Why not two floors together as it makes it a bit more difficult to fill the floors in between..


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Turbosnail said:


> One thing I don't get about 1 World Trade Centre is that Beijing Vantone Industrial Company have agreed to lease floors 64 and 69. Why not two floors together as it makes it a bit more difficult to fill the floors in between..


Could it be because others previously leased the floors in between and that company was late in signing the agreement, hence had to live with being separated?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Morgan Stanley, BofA Said to Sell Stake in Times Square Tower*
Bloomberg

By David M. Levitt - Apr 19, 2011 Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) agreed to sell their 49 percent stake in 1633 Broadway, a 48-story tower near New York’s Times Square, according to three people with knowledge of the transaction. 

The buyer is Paramount Group Inc., the U.S. real estate unit of Germany’s Otto Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal is private. The purchase valued the building at about $2 billion, making it the most expensive New York commercial property transaction since Google Inc.’s $1.8 billion acquisition last year of 111 Eighth Ave., according to the New York Observer, which reported the sale yesterday. 

Paramount, which also holds interests in Deutsche Bank AG’s North American headquarters tower at 60 Wall St., and the former Credit Lyonnais Building at 1301 Avenue of the Americas, bought the remaining stake after exercising a right of first refusal under its partnership, one of the people said. 

Jolanta Bott, a Paramount spokeswoman, declined to comment, as did Mark Lake, a spokesman for New York-based Morgan Stanley. (MS) Jessica Oppenheim, a Bank of America spokeswoman, didn’t return calls for comment. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank acquired its interest when it took over Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2009. 

Eastdil Secured LLC was the broker on the transaction. Doug Harmon, senior managing director for the New York-based firm, declined to comment on the deal. 

Demand Rising 
Investor demand is climbing for large New York office properties, he said. Five of Manhattan’s biggest buildings either have changed hands or are in final stages of sales or recapitalizations, he said. Those include the 1.3 million- square-foot (120,770-square-meter) Chelsea Market building, and the 2.4 million-square-foot Starrett-Lehigh building. 

“There’s plenty of jet fuel igniting the big-deal market in New York,” Harmon said, adding that the interest is coming from global investors. 

Harmon’s firm also was the broker for the 111 Eighth Ave. sale to Google. The Mountain View, California-based company is the largest tenant in the building, a 2.9 million-square-foot property in Chelsea. 

To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt in New York at [email protected] 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at [email protected]


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Brookfield Joins Stuyvesant Town Tenants on Bid to Buy Manhattan Complex*
Dec 1, 2011 4:55 AM GMT+0800
Bloomberg 









_Source : http://www.pbase.com/gaiyang46/image/133363245_

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is working with the tenants association at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village on a bid to buy Manhattan’s biggest apartment complex from its debt holders.

Brookfield, a Toronto-based investment firm that manages about $150 billion, is teaming with the tenants on a conversion proposal that will allow residents to buy their apartments “at a reasonable price,” Al Doyle, the association’s president, said in a letter posted on the group’s website. Tenants would have the option to continue to rent, he said.

The 80-acre (32-hectare) enclave, home to more than 25,000 people, has been under the control of CWCapital Asset Management LLC since last year. The company is representing bondholders on a $3 billion senior mortgage after Tishman Speyer Properties LP and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) defaulted on the loan, undone by a plunge in the property’s value and a failed plan to raise rents.

“We cannot -- and will not -- sit idly by and wait for our future to be determined for us,” Doyle wrote. “With Brookfield on our team, CWCapital, the entity representing the senior bondholders of the property, will find it extremely difficult to ignore us.”

‘Robust Community Process’

The structure of the bid isn’t yet complete. There will be a “robust community process” in the coming months to develop a proposal, which will then be presented to CWCapital, according to a joint statement today from Brookfield and the tenants association.

City Councilman Daniel Garodnick, who lives in Peter Cooper Village and has been advocating for tenants since before its 2006 sale to Tishman Speyer and BlackRock, said the deal in the works would satisfy both residents and bondholders. The complex has provided a park-like environment, with trees, benches and play areas, for middle-class families since it was built after World War II, and Garodnick and other city officials have vowed to keep it that way.

Debt holders “will likely do best under the plan than under any other plan,” he said in an interview after a press conference today at the complex. “This plan will have the support of the people who live here, which will ensure stability and order and will also deliver to them the best outcome.”

Served on Plate

Garodnick declined to say how much Brookfield is expected to invest. CWCapital will like the offer, he said.

“It’s as if we’re serving it up to them on a plate,” he said during the press conference.

Elizabeth Orcutt, a CWCapital spokeswoman, said in an e- mail that the company has no comment on today’s announcement.

The apartment complex, located on Manhattan’s east side between 14th and 23rd streets, has more than 11,000 units. Tishman Speyer and BlackRock paid $5.4 billion for the development near the peak of real estate prices, with plans to convert rent-regulated units to market rates.

The transaction was financed with $3 billion of debt that was bundled with other commercial mortgages and sold as bonds. The deal went sour after the property bubble burst and a state court said some renters had been subject to improper rate increases. Investors that lost money included the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Church of England.

Dialogue With Tenants

Brookfield and the tenants plan to develop purchase price proposals for the apartments as the bid is put together, according to their statement today.

“A non-eviction conversion plan can only be successful if large numbers of tenants find the deal appealing enough to want to buy their units,” they said.

The dialogue with residents will start Dec. 3 at a general meeting of the association, scheduled for 1 p.m. at Baruch College on Lexington Avenue and East 23rd Street, according to the tenant association’s website.

The joint release contained statements of support for the proposed bid from both of New York’s U.S. senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, state Senator Tom Duane.

‘Stability and Affordability’

“In the coming months, we will work with the tenants association on a proposal that will provide real value for Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village creditors, while giving tenants the stability and affordability they deserve,” Barry Blattman, a Brookfield senior managing partner involved in the bid, said in the statement.

Margaret Salacan, who has lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Stuyvesant Town since 1988, said she was hopeful about the plan.

“I’m excited because the tenants can finally take back control of their destiny,” said Salacan, a personal assistant who works from her apartment.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have lost some of their neighborhood appeal as more “transient” renters moved in after Tishman Speyer’s purchase, Salacan said.

“It has been a landlord who is just concerned about money, just concerned about renovating apartments, moving as many people in as quickly as possible,” said Salacan.

Brookfield Asset’s principal lines of business are property, energy, roads, utility lines and other forms of infrastructure, with investments on all five continents. It is the parent company of Brookfield Office Properties (BPO), owner of lower Manhattan’s World Financial Center and unwitting host of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators for two months on a plaza it owns downtown, until police broke up the campsite on Nov. 15.

Brookfield owns about 12,000 multifamily units in 11 states and one Canadian province, Andrew Willis, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. Part of that comes via a 65 percent stake in Fairfield Residential Co. of San Diego., which it acquired last year, he said.

Last year, Brookfield Asset was part of the investor group that brought General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP), the second-biggest U.S. mall landlord, out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.


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