CW Financial acquires Rockwood: report

CW Financial Services, best known in the city as the parent company of CWCapital Asset Management, will acquire Manhattan-based boutique investment bank Rockwood Real Estate Advisors, sources told Crain’s. Formerly known as DTZ Rockwood, the firm provides real estate advisory services, portfolio brokerage and debt and equity, according to its website. As The Real Deal previously reported, Rockwood filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, two years after advising Mann Realty Associates on its $426 million purchase of the Apthorp. Over the last three years the firm has been involved in about $20 billion worth of real estate assets. Crain’s said the move helps CW expand its reach while providing the cash needed to help Rockwood become more competitive. The deal is not final and the terms remain undisclosed.

CW is the special servicer for the loans on the troubled Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and Riverton Houses complexes. Though the owners of those properties defaulted after their failed attempts to bring the units to market rate, CW hasn’t moved to sell either property as the apartments are in the midst of a long legal struggle after the rent raises were found to be illegal. [Crain’s]