The Apthorp, at 2211 Broadway
Irish Bank Resolution, which changed its name from Anglo Irish Bank in July 2011, has decided not to sell a portion of its U.S. loans due to fears of lawsuits from U.S. customers, whose consent would have been required in order to sell their performing loans, an article in Irish Times said.
The bank will maintain an office in Boston to manage the $1 billion in U.S. loans that it retained, the paper said. [more]
Following months of legal maneuvering, a state Supreme Court judge has ruled that Anglo Irish Bank can finally sell the troubled mortgage loan backed by the Apthorp condominium on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Judge Jeffrey Oing issued an order Nov. 29 finally allowing Anglo Irish Bank to move ahead with the sale of the $385 million mortgage loan to Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, but sources familiar with the negotiations say a final agreement was still being worked out to complete the deal.
The Apthorp loan, which has a remaining balance of $225 million. just before the suit was filed Sept. 13, was one of the largest in a group of $5 billion in troubled loans to be acquired by Lone Star. Anglo agreed to sell its entire $9.5 billion U.S. portfolio after the Irish government took over the troubled lender and agreed to sell off all of its non-core holdings around the world. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo agreed to buy the remaining tranche of performing loans. [more]
Maurice Mann, the original developer of the Apthorp condominium conversion, has purchased a penthouse unit at the Laureate, the Stahl Organization’s new luxury condominium at 2150 Broadway, for over $7 million, according to public records filed with the city today.
Mann closed on the 2,532-square-foot, three-bedroom residence at the Laureate on Nov. 18, according to records, with a price of $7.37 million. Though he was not immediately available for comment, a person who answered the phone at his office confirmed the purchase.
The unit, which boasts “a great room with extra large windows and a set of French doors that open to a Juliet balcony at the [front] of the building,” was last listed with Shlomi Reuveni, a broker and head of the Brown Harris Stevens Select team, for $7.7 million, according to Streeteasy.com. [more]
The developers of the Upper West Side’s Apthorp condominium are planning to withdraw their lawsuit against Anglo Irish Bank, according to documents filed in New York state Supreme Court this past Friday, and will allow the lender to sell the property’s troubled $385 million building loan to Dallas-based Loan Star Funds.
Anglo, the senior mortgage lender at the troubled condo, at 2211 Broadway, blasted the developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, in a proposed order submitted to Judge Jeffrey Oing, detailing what it considers numerous attempts by the building sponsors to squirm out of their crumbling lawsuit, which sought to block the bank from selling the senior mortgage.
“Plaintiff’s current effort to dismiss this case in its entirety suggests that Anglo’s contention that this is a strike suit may well be correct,” Anglo Irish lawyers wrote in the proposed order. [more]
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has shut down the sales office at the Apthorp, fined the developers $190,000 and ordered rescission for all contracted buyers following an investigation into misleading statements made to the AG months before they filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from selling their $385 million mortgage loan.
The Apthorp developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, filed suit against the troubled bank Sept. 12, alleging the sale of the $385 million Apthorp loan would “adversely impact sales” and potentially “threaten the conversion project itself.”
[more]
Anglo Irish Bank said in a court filing yesterday that the developers of the Apthorp condominium, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, gave the lender the right to sell the property’s $385 million mortgage to a third-party by waiving a “no-assignment” clause in the loan agreement, and later defaulted on the loan by failing to meet sales targets.
The Apthorp developers, led by billionaire Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel USA, filed suit in state Supreme Court earlier this month asking a judge to block the sale of the loan to Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, claiming the transfer would threaten the viability of the project by creating uncertainty in the market, which would cut into sales.
Anglo Irish is selling the debt as part of a massive restructuring to exit the U.S. commercial real estate market. The lender is selling its entire $9.5 billion American commercial loan portfolio, and the Apthorp loan sale is part of a $5 billion sale of nonperforming and sub-performing loans to Loan Star. [more]
After failing to come to any agreement last week, developer Apthorp Associated LLC, sponsor of the condominium conversion at the Apthorp, between 78th and 79th streets, is suing Anglo Irish Bank over the sale of a loan tied to the 103-year old Upper West Side landmarked building, Bloomberg News reported.
Private equity firms Lone Star, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase triumphed in a battle for Anglo Irish’s $9.5 billion portfolio of U.S. commercial real estate loans last month. Lone Star took pools of non-performing and sub-performing loans worth around $5 billion, including the Apthorp mortgage.
Anglo Irish, which is selling a $9.7 billion portfolio of U.S. real estate loans, is required to maintain at least a 51 percent interest in the $385 million loan, Apthorp Associates LLC said in a complaint filed today in New York state court in Manhattan. [more]
If the goal of real estate investors is to buy low and sell high, then, according to the Wall Street Journal, Africa Israel’s U.S. investments have failed miserably. Like Japanese real estate investors that lost big on late 1980s purchases of the Pebble Beach golf resort and Rockefeller Center when a recession hit a few years later, Africa Israel’s purchases of the Clocktower Office Building near Madison Square Park, the former New York Times headquarters on West 43rd Street, the Apthorp on the Upper West Side and the Marquis Miami Condo-Hotel will likely result in big losses. For example, the company is in contract to sell the Clocktower building to Tommy Hilfiger for $170 million, despite paying $200 million for the building and spending millions more to convert it to condominiums. Worse, the company is selling 11 of the 16 floors of the Times headquarters to Blackstone Group for $160 million, despite paying $525 million for the entire building in 2007. [more]
href="http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/actor-mickey-rourke-rents-50-morton-street-duplex-that-once-belonged-to-beatrice-inn-owner-elsie-cardia">
alt="alternate text">
Academy Award-nominated actor Mickey Rourke has traded a $19,800-a-month loft in the Meatpacking District for two floors in a West Village townhouse that were asking significantly less, according to TMZ. The “Wrestler” star’s new pad, which appears to be the garden duplex at 50 Morton Street, was last listed for $13,500 per month by Sotheby’s International Realty broker Jane Forman, according to Streeteasy.com. It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a patio and a wood-burning fireplace. According to city records, the townhouse once belonged to the late Elsie Cardia, who owned the Beatrice Inn for 50 years. Last year, The Real Deal reported that Rourke was scoping out for-sale units in the storied Apthorp condominium conversion on the Upper West Side in the $3 million and $4 million range. [TMZ] [more]
The Apthorp’s retail space
Travel accessory retailer Tumi has signed a lease for 1,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Apthorp, and will open there next fall, the Apthorp’s sponsor announced. The cost and length of the lease were not disclosed. The retail condominium in the building at 390 West End Avenue was purchased by William Friedland for $37 million in February, and already lists JPMorgan Chase and the Apthorp Pharmacy as tenants. Another space of about 2,500 square feet remains available. Robert K. Futterman Associates Managing Director Beth Rosen, Executive Vice President Karen Bellatoni and Lynne Bremer of Fandel Retail Group represented Tumi in the transaction, while Friedland completed the deal without outside representation. TRD [more]
