Gluck transfers debt on Tribeca complex

Laurence Gluck-led Stellar Management requested to transfer its debt on Independence Plaza to a special servicer in an effort to extend the mortgage. Independence Plaza is a mixed-use complex in Tribeca that consists of 1,328 apartment units across three 39-story towers with 73,000 square feet of retail space and a 230,000-square-foot commercial parking garage. A spokesperson for Stellar Management said that the deal will not affect residents of the buildings, and that ownership still has a firm grasp on the property. Gluck was famously the defendant in a successsful lawsuit against Stellar Management, which alleged that the firm continued to receive special tax breaks from the city reserved for affordable housing ownership despite bringing the units to market-rate. Debt transferring to special servicers has become increasingly common during the downturn, as Trepp recently estimated that servicers controlled $87 billion in commercial mortgages in March 2011, compared with just $6 billion three years earlier. TRD