Peter Hauspurg and 311 West 43rd Street

Atlas Capital Group has paid $62.4 million for a 185,000-square-foot office building home to several theater and design firms, public records show, and apparently plans to reposition the property to appeal to more traditional office tenants. The acquisition of the building, located at 311 West 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, helped close an eventful year for the real estate investment firm. [more]

550 Washington Street

City investor and philanthropist Eugene Grant has agreed to sell his controlling 50.1 percent stake in the Meatpacking District’s massive former freight facility, known as St. John’s Center, to an investor group that owns the other 49.9 percent, in a deal that was rushed forward due to concerns over the fiscal cliff, the New York Post reported. The deal with Fortress Investment Group, Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners is worth approximately $250 million. [more]

From left: Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias of Alexico, the Alex Hotel and the Flatotel

Four months after a court ruled debtholders could foreclose on its Alex Hotel and Flatotel properties in Midtown, Alexico Group and its partners have filed for bankruptcy protection in connection with the two buildings, which have $368 million in liabilities, Bloomberg News reported (note: correction appended). The developer has $245 million of outstanding liabilities on the 272-room Flatotel at 135 West 52nd Street with lenders Rockpoint Group, Procaccianti Group and Atlas Capital Group. The partnership purchased the debt from Anglo Irish Bank two years ago. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Simon Elias, Alex Hotel, Flatotel and Izak Senbahar

The Alexico Group will likely lose control of a pair of Midtown hotel properties by the end of the year, after a New York State Supreme Court Judge ruled that the debtholders on the Flatotel and Alex Hotel may foreclose on the properties, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Flatotel is a 272-room hotel the Alexico Group developed at 135 West 52nd Street that the debtholders moved to foreclose on in September 2010 with a $197 million lawsuit. The Alex Hotel, a 205-room property at 205 East 45th Street, was first hit with an $81.7 million lawsuit two months earlier, The Real Deal reported at the time. [more]

Embattled developer Harry Jeremias put his Chelsea office rehabilitation project at 216 West 18th Street into bankruptcy in order to transfer the 13-story building to a designee of Atlas Capital Group, court records show.

Jeremias’ Harch Group, through its development company 216 West 18 Owner, on Tuesday filed the so-called pre-packaged liquidating Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan in Manhattan, but the plan has not yet been approved by the judge.

The court records show the development company owes $74.3 million in principal and interest on a first mortgage and $24.6 million in principal and interest on a mezzanine loan, for the Chelsea property recently appraised at just $62.3 million, the filing shows. … [more]

A joint venture of the Kaufman Organization and Invesco Real Estate have picked up the 270,000-square-foot office tower at 100 Fifth Avenue for $93.5 million, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The building, one block from Union Square, last changed hands for $152 million in 2008, when a unit of U.K. entrepreneur Paul Kemsley’s now-bankrupt Rock Joint Ventures bought it from Atlas Capital Group. … [more]

The Alex

The Alex, one of Alexico Group’s three distressed hotels in Manhattan,
is facing an $81.7 million foreclosure suit after An… [more]