Avenue Capital Group — a hedge fund that has nabbed headlines in the last year for its New York City-area commercial real estate dealings — has a new aspiring star in its family. Emma Lasry, the daughter of billionaire CEO Marc Lasry, has released a new single and music video entitled “Closet Bitch.” In it, the 18-year-old songstress sings into her hairbrush that while she seems nice, she’s actually a terrible person once you get to know her. She also dances in a skintight leather vest and pants. Her father seems pleased with the creative venture, telling the Wall Street Journal that he thinks “the song is really good.” Lasry’s hedge fund saw some of the largest commercial sales this past winter, when an affiliate unloaded more than $40 million of retail space at the Avonova.

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Donald Trump’s former Atlantic City casinos have plummeted in value in the 11 months since they filed for Chapter 11, public Securities and Exchange Commission filings revealed yesterday. Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina and Trump Plaza casino-hotels, said the properties are now worth just an estimated $459 million. When the company filed for bankruptcy in February 2009, its properties were worth $2 billion. Trump and his daughter Ivanka resigned from the company’s board at that time. A decision is expected this week in bankruptcy court on two reorganization plans for the properties. Under one plan, which was presented by investor Carl Icahn, the company’s debt would be converted into equity. Hedge fund Avenue Capital would buy the casinos for $225 million under the other plan, which is being backed by Trump Entertainment Resorts and Donald Trump. [Post]

From the December issue: Major lease deals signed at the Boston Properties trophy office building at 399 Park Avenue over the past month seemed to indicate the market was getting a boost. But the latest reports from the city’s commercial brokerage firms show continued slippage in Manhattan office leasing, and those mixed signals make it difficult for brokers to agree on what advice to give their clients. Erik Schmall, a senior managing director at commercial firm Studley, said at the start of the crisis, his firm counseled tenants to hold off on making deals. But that stance has softened recently, and the company believes low-priced space can be had at attractive pricing. “Whether we are at the bottom of the market or really close to it, we feel we are close enough where the quality of the deals we can get probably outweigh any possible further benefit,” he said. [more]

Forgiveness may be the key to success at 399 Park Avenue, where a perceived snub several weeks ago caused owner Boston Properties to swap hedge fund Avenue Capital for commercial brokerage Studley on an 11th-floor, 60,000-square-foot lease. Avenue Capital has since resumed talks with Boston, yesterday signing off on a 57,000-square-foot lease on the sixth floor of the former Lehman Brothers building. Boston’s leasing agent, John Powers of CB Richard Ellis, called the incident a “hiccup” from which the parties decided to “move on.” The result is a move that gets the hedge fund nearly the same amount of space as it would have had on the 11th floor, and a better layout than its current one at 535 Madison Avenue, where the company is fragmented across five floors. For Boston Properties, the deal means it has re-leased 85 percent of the former Lehman building in the span of less than one year. [more]