The Real Deal New York

From the May issue: When the news broke in March that the investment group Westbrook
Partners and its operating partner, the Moinian Group, would return
office building 475 Fifth Avenue to its lenders, it was viewed as yet
another casualty of the irrationally exuberant real estate market of
the boom years. But for a developer being forced to
relinquish one of the many troubled properties in the real estate
empire he’s amassed over the past three decades, Joseph Moinian seemed
awfully complacent. “The decision of giving the building back to the lender was made by Westbrook,” Moinian matter-of-factly told The Real Deal
in his office on the 18th floor of 530 Fifth Avenue. “They said, ‘Joe,
do you mind?’ Because they’re the big brother partner, we agreed with
their decision. We were a minority partner.”