From left: William Beaver House, 25 Broad Street and the Setai Wall Street

Financial District condominium projects have found success since being converted to rentals early this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, although the Occupy Wall Street protests have dampened the trend in recent days.

The 300-unit Sapir Organization-developed William Beaver House, for example, put its 208 unsold units on the rental market this spring, and about 75 percent of them have been leased at a rate of 18 per month and $57 per square-foot.

Similarly, 25 Broad Street, the condo conversion by Kent Swig, went on the rental market earlier this year, and 104 of the 305 units have rented for about $55 per square foot. [more]

From left: Kent Swig, the site at 45 Broad Street and a rendering of Nobu Hotel and Residences

Lehman Brothers Holdings is expected to take control of a Kent Swig development site at 45 Broad Street at a foreclosure auction scheduled for next month.

Swig’s Swig Equities lost control of the site after Lehman filed to foreclose in 2009; the site was then put in the hands of a court-appointed receiver. Swig is named in the foreclosure suit, along with various organizations that have filed liens against him.

Among the other defendants are Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and other tenants, occupants, contract parties, lien-holders and others that may claim an interest in the property. The lien amount is $72.5 million in total. The auction will take place Nov. 16, according to PropertyShark.com. [more]

25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s former mammoth office building at 25 Broad Street may have finally come back to life as a 305-unit rental property thanks to Lehman Brothers Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported, after 80 percent of the 90 available units were rented in just two months.
With applications under review for the remaining units, more are now under renovation, the Journal said.
The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. 

Lehman took over the building after Swig defaulted on his mortgage in 2009. Swig paid $262.5 million to buy the former office property in 2005.

Swig had previously intended to transform it into a luxury condominium building. [more]

Having just leased the first 10 apartments at 25 Broad Street last month, Lehman Brothers Holdings lives on and is looking to make some profit from prime New York properties, and perhaps pay off some creditors, according to the New York Observer.
Set to update a bankruptcy court on plans next week, Lehman has apparently shifted its tactics. The firm is moving to sell its share of key Manhattan assets such as the old International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway, and is quietly considering a new development at 235 West Broadway in Soho, the Observer reported. [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street is back in action as a rental building. A court-appointed receiver has tapped developer LCOR to put the 20-story building back on the market, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the leasing office opens today. The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. There are also hefty concessions: one month’s free rent, plus the elimination of broker fees for renters who sign on for one or two years. [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Lehman Brothers Holdings is seeking approval from the judge handling its bankruptcy case to restart Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street and turn the building into rental apartments. According to Bloomberg News, the bank said in a court filing that it plans to foreclose on both the conversion and on an adjacent development parcel at 45 Broad Street, and wants to invest $25 million to finish the job. Lehman has already poured $39.9 million into 25 Broad Street since Swig defaulted in 2009. As part of completing the 281-unit project, the bank would demolish the building’s south wing and transfer its 64,000 square feet of development rights to 45 Broad in order to attract potential buyers for the latter parcel. Comments

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From left: Michael Shvo, 20 Pine Street and 25 Broad StreetStalled condominium developments that suffered during the recession are now being revived in the Financial District. However, as the neighborhood emerges from the downturn, the new developments are falling short of previous expectations, in terms of pricing and design, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new owners of William Beaver House, for instance, are slashing condo prices, while the creditors of the Setai Wall Street are selling their defaulted loan, to help closings resume. The lenders to 25 Broad Street are foreclosing on the property, paving the way for converting it to rentals. “People in the Financial District got a little over-ambitious, both in terms of prices and concepts,” said Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty. [more]

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From the December issue:
While Manhattan buildings have seen sale discounts as high as 70 percent in this recession, this is not the first time the city has seen bargain-basement prices for skyscrapers. Indeed, in the early 1990s, when New York was in the throes of another recession, a flurry of deals was brokered that in hindsight seem shrewdly forward-thinking. This month, The Real Deal took a walk down memory lane and looked at some of those real estate deals to see which buildings traded at significant markdowns and which investors made savvy bets.

From the outset of the discussion on Manhattan’s commercial real estate market this morning, developer Kent Swig of Swig Equities gave a gloomier assessment than co-panelist and landlord Norman Sturner of Murray Hill Properties. Swig, at times waxing poetically about the troubles in the securitized commercial debt market, said although residential properties showed signs of stabilizing, the office market had farther to fall. “I don’t know if picking up is the right term,” he said of the commercial real estate industry. [more]