From the December issue: Residential property management group Cooper Square Realty has added 2,300 units to its portfolio. The company, which manages more than 60,000 residences, announced the new additions to its client list, spread across 11 different buildings, including the Artisan Lofts condo at 143 Reade Street and the Mirada condo at 161 East 110th Street. It is also expanding its presence in the rental market, taking over management at buildings such as 34 Leonard Street and 90 Pinehurst Avenue. [more]

From the South Florida website: While troubled lender iStar may be about to sell off its debt at Trump Soho, another struggling iStar-backed condominium-hotel is getting a new lease on life. The W Fort Lauderdale, which opened in 2009 but has not yet sold any units, has reached a modification on its $245 million
mortgage that dates back to 2006. The loan mod with iStar, which is in the midst of a bid to stave off a bankruptcy filing, stated
that $232.7 million of the original loan was outstanding. The lender has been behind some of New York City’s most high-profile, high-risk condominium projects, which, in addition to Trump Soho, include One Madison Park, 34 Leonard Street and the William Beaver House.  [more]

After closing on a 16-unit, foreclosed condominium building at 34 Leonard Street a week ago, new owner Queenwood 34 LLC says it’s already leased out five of its units, including a $45,000-per-month, four-bedroom penthouse unit.

The building closed for $40.8 million, public records show, and a representative for the owners said it was bought directly from lender iStar. Cara Stone, the owner’s representative heading up leasing at the Tribeca building, which also includes 4,500 square feet of ground floor retail space, said that Epic began marketing the rentable units immediately after closing the deal. The aforementioned penthouse unit is the priciest in the building, while the least expensive apartment, a one-bedroom unit, goes for $9,500 per month [more]

A 16-unit luxury co-op building at 34 Leonard Street in Tribeca is hitting the auction block May 5, according to Crain’s, a year after developer R Squared defaulted on its $37.5 million mortgage and saw lender iStar Financial foreclose on the property. Although the property’s conversion to co-op was considered a success, the developers’ timing was off, placing the units on the market in fall 2007, just a short while before the recession hit. The R Squared development team has yet to comment on the auction proceedings.

With cash bonuses still in — relatively — short supply in the aftermath of the recession, Goldman Sachs seems to be doing its part to limit the cutbacks’ impact on luxury real estate. Gawker took a look at New York City property records this week and found that Goldman started lending to individual residential property owners in mid-2008, just as the financial system was beginning to collapse. There were 17 instances in total where Goldman is listed as the secured party on residential property transactions in the city; half of those involved employees of the firm. In late October 2008, managing director Oliver Frankel took out one such “hassle-free” mortgage from his employer for a co-op in Tribeca’s 34 Leonard Street, where units were selling between $2 million and $8 million earlier that year. Goldman has also granted loans to managing director T. Clark Munnell for his $6.6 million Park Avenue apartment, to banking technology manager Lancelot Braunstein, who bought a $2.1 million co-op in September, and to vice president Justin Lee for his $1.9 million Chelsea apartment, among others. Terms of the mortgages are not public, but the company recently told the Wall Street Journal that it has allowed “a small number of employees” to take out mortgages, that they carry normal interest rates and that they must be paid back. Gawker did uncover the terms of one particularly high-profile mortgage, though. Rodney Martin, the chief operating office of AIG’s life insurance unit was lent $4 million in April 2008 for a $4 million apartment at 15 Central Park West, courtesy of new neighbor and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s company. The 30-year mortgage had a 4.8 percent interest rate and was interest-only for the first 10 years. [Gawker]

R Squared Real Estate is facing a foreclosure suit from iStar Financial
for $37.5 million in loans for the conversion of 34 Leonard, a
loft-style co-op apartment and retail building in Tribeca, which
recently completed construction. Istar alleges in a May 26
suit filed in New York State Supreme Court that the borrower defaulted
on a $29.2 million building loan and an $8.3 million project loan to
convert the site into a 16-unit co-op with 4,100 square feet of retail
space. R Squared is a privately held real estate firm led by
Mitchell and Gregg Rechler, who are major retail and residential
developers, with offices in Manhattan and Melville, L.I. In
the lawsuit, iStar alleges that the borrowers defaulted on April 15,
with a balance of $32.3 million in principal, fees, interest and other
expenses. Istar officials were not immediately available for comment. [more]