Are things are looking up again for Robert Willumstad? The former finance executive had a brief, but rough go of it as CEO of the American International Group in the three months preceding its $85 billion government bailout in 2008, turning down an eight-figure severance package upon his departure.

And more recently, in last month’s HBO premiere of “Too Big to Fail,” the adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s financial meltdown tome, Tom Mason portrayed his rapid rise and fall at the flailing insurance giant before a scrutinizing audience. But nine days later, the Bay Ridge-born Willumstad proved that, maybe, he’s still got it. According to city records, he closed June 1 on a $2.2 million duplex co-op at 114 East 72nd Street, just off of Park Avenue. [more]

From the May issue: The embattled insurance giant American International Group has sold over 2,000 residential units for $245 million in New Jersey in one of the largest apartment sales in the metro area, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The buyers — New York-based investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. and developer Vantage Properties — have signed a contract for the Pheasant Hollow apartment complex in Plainsboro, N.J., near Princeton.
The sale, which was brokered by commercial real estate firm HFF, is expected to be the first in a series for the insurance company. The firm is selling a portfolio of over 7,000 apartments that it brought from developer Kushner Companies in 2007.
According to real estate data firm Reis Inc., Central New Jersey’s vacancy rate fell to 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter, making it the seventh-lowest rate of the 82 metro markets that Reis tracks, the Journal reported. — Compiled by Omari Allen. Click here to read more. [more]

Developer Vantage Properties has partnered with investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. in a $245 million, 2,200-apartment buy in Plainsboro, N.J., marking one of the biggest apartment sales ever in the tri-state area, according to the Wall Street Journal. The portfolio of rental units, located near Princeton, N.J., is being sold by insurer AIG, which bought up the properties from developer Kushner Companies in 2007. The deal comes amidst a bullish outlook for multi-family properties nationwide — with vacancy rates dropping and opportunities for new development limited, more investors have been pursuing existing rental apartment buys, experts say. [more]

70 Pine St, Young Woo of Youngwoo & Associates

As 70 Pine Street heads to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for recognition of its historic past, the future of the 66-story Art Deco skyscraper is up in the air. According to the Post, a plan to convert the former American International Group building’s upper portion into high-end condominiums while keeping the lower portion of the building as offices has been scrapped by the new owners of the tower, who purchased it, along with the adjacent 72 Wall Street, for $150 million from American International Group in 2009. Those owners are a group led by Korea’s Kumho Investment Bank — not, as previously reported, New York developer Young Woo, of Youngwoo & Associates, who was previously believed to have bought the properties with some equity from KIB. In fact, KIB now says its group owns 100 percent of 70 Pine Street and that Woo is “just part of the [group of] advisers” created to manage the building. 1 Comment

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70 Pine St, Young Woo of Youngwoo & Associates

The 66-story Art Deco tower at 70 Pine Street, the former American International Group tower where developer Youngwoo & Associates is planning a partial condominium conversion, is going up for landmarking. According to the Post, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing next month on the skyscraper, which was built by Clinton & Russel, Holton & George in 1932 and is currently the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. Peers of 70 Pine, like the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Donald Trump’s 40 Wall Street, all enjoy protection as landmarks, meaning any changes to their structures must be first approved by the LPC. [more]

SouFun Holdings, a Chinese property website based in Beijing, plans to spend $46 million to acquire a former training center of American International Group in Manhattan, with the purchase expected to be completed in the first half of 2011. The training center includes a 250,000-square-foot building at 72 Wall Street, one of a pair of adjoining AIG properties purchased last year by Youngwoo & Associates and Korea-based Kumho Bank. In 2009, Youngwoo and Kumho paid $150 milliion for 72 Wall and neighboring 70 Pine Street. SouFun, which has 65 offices in China, said it will partner with selected universities and colleges in the U.S. to train its expanding management, staff and clients in the former AIG center. [China Knowledge]

Buying and selling loans on distressed properties has become a thriving business in New York’s commercial real estate market. While statistics aren’t available on the volume of distressed real estate loan sales, industry officials say they’re on the rise, the Wall Street Journal reported. The latest example of this is a partnership of California investors who bought a stalled Brooklyn Heights condominium development at 20 Henry Street and is restarting construction after nearly two years of inactivity. Developer Urban Realty Partners defaulted on its loan from Bank of New York and the project’s equity partner, American International Group, collapsed during the financial crisis, sources said. Now a partnership, known as the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, bought the loan and took control by cutting a deal with Urban Realty and AIG Bank of New York sold the note at a roughly 25 percent discount to the unpaid loan balance. “During the past three months, activity has become more frenzied,” said David Schechtman, a principal at Eastern Consolidated who brokered the transaction. “Prices have come down but buyers are no longer demanding fire-sale prices.” [Wall Street Journal]

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The financial reform bill finalized in Congress last week is impeding the recovery of New York City’s suffering office market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Major financial firms accounted for about 46 million square feet of Manhattan office space two years ago, enough to fill up more than 16 Empire State Buildings, according to CoStar. But the finance bill, which is set for a vote this week, may force big banks to cut back their proprietary trading units and reduce investments. Though most Wall Street firms have recovered, they aren’t hiring enough to make up for the tens of thousands of jobs lost and millions of square feet of office space they abandoned during the banking crisis in 2008 and 2009. Companies are still dumping big
blocks of space on the market, like the 500,000 square feet in the former headquarters of American International Group at 70 Pine Street.
[WSJ]

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The financial reform bill finalized in Congress last week is impeding the recovery of New York City’s suffering office market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Major financial firms accounted for about 46 million square feet of Manhattan office space two years ago, enough to fill up more than 16 Empire State Buildings, according to CoStar. But the finance bill, which is set for a vote this week, may force big banks to cut back their proprietary trading units and reduce investments. Though most Wall Street firms have recovered, they aren’t hiring enough to make up for the tens of thousands of jobs lost and millions of square feet of office space they abandoned during the banking crisis in 2008 and 2009. Companies are still dumping big
blocks of space on the market, like the 500,000 square feet in the former headquarters of American International Group at 70 Pine Street.
[WSJ]

[more]

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued ICP Asset Management and
its founder, Thomas Piore, alleging that they defrauded clients in
pooled mortgages known as the Triaxx series, totaling $11 billion,
including deals that were insured by American International Group,
the Wall Street Journal reported. AIG and Financial Guaranty Insurance provided insurance on the mortgages, known as collateralized debt

obligations, or CDOs, and had to sign off on any new securities
purchases, according to the SEC. The federal government bailed out AIG
in September 2008 in part because of souring CDOs that the firm had

insured. The SEC is also alleging that as
the credit markets were deteriorating in 2007 and 2008, Priore caused
the Triaxx CDO holders to buy bonds at inflated prices to benefit ICP
or another CDO under distress. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal
court in Manhattan, is the SEC’s first allegation since the credit
crisis that an asset manager overseeing CDOs mismanaged the accounts. [WSJ]

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