Stuy Town sale will mean big payday for CWCapital

Special servicer stands to make $615 million from deal

Stuyvesant Town and CWCapital President David Iannarone
Stuyvesant Town and CWCapital President David Iannarone

Stuyvesant Town special servicer CWCapital Asset Management stands to make more than half a billion from the property’s sale to the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge for $5.3 billion.

The company, controlled by Fortress investment Group, will make as much as $615 million from the sale because Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village’s value climbed so far beyond its $3 billion mortgage, according to estimates by Barclays. Tishman Speyer and partners defaulted on the mortgage in 2010.

While special servicers like CWCapital usually collect a .25-percent fee on the total debt yield plus a fee when the property sells, the company claims that the jump in value entitles it 3 percent of the in-default debt, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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“It’s the mother lode,” Edward Shugrue, chief executive of bond manager Talmage LLC, told the Journal. “Comb through structured finance – there’s nothing like this … That’s a pretty flippin’ crazy amount of money.”

CW stands to make $45 million from the standard servicing fees, in addition to roughly $555 million from the added value, according to Barclays. It can also claim a $15 million liquidation fee.

Fortress paid about $300 million for CWCapital when it bought the company in 2010. [WSJ] – Rich Bockmann