William Rudin and the St. Vincent’s Hospital siteThe Rudin family’s $800 million redevelopment of the St. Vincent’s Hospital site is one step closer to a reality. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rudin Management obtained $525 million in construction financing and can begin construction once the government approval process, already underway, is complete.

The relative ease with which the Rudin’s cleared the financing obstacle given today’s tight lending environment was surprising, the Journal said. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon and M&T Bank contributed to the loan.

But that last hurdle, government approval, could be the highest. [more]

Attorney General Eric SchneidermanFrom the September issue: When New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman took office earlier this year, some critics feared he would do more ideological grandstanding than consumer protection and reform.
After eight months on the job, the former Democratic state senator (and ex-deputy sheriff) appears to be winning over some skeptics while enraging others.
The relatively low-profile Schneiderman exploded into the national spotlight last month when he filed a last-minute motion to block a proposed $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of America and investors in 530 New York trusts represented by Bank of New York Mellon.
The blockbuster move alleged that Bank of New York effectively tried to carve out a sweetheart deal for itself at the expense of the investors it was supposed to be representing. [more]

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is expanding his investigation into the U.S. mortgage industry, having teamed up with Delaware Attorney General Joseph Biden III in requesting information from Deutsche Bank AG and the Bank of New York Mellon about their roles as trustees overseeing mortgage securities for investors. As the New York Times reported, trustees were administrators — not originators or servicers — of the loans, and thus had not previously been under much scrutiny as part of other nationwide investigations into what fueled the industry’s boom and bust. But trustees were supposed to make sure that all documentation was accurate and accounted for — a responsibility that has already been called into question by a probe into shoddy foreclosure practices by some of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers. [more]

A group of investors in a securitization of $2.8 billion mortgage-backed bonds originated by Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial unit filed a complaint in New York State Supreme Court yesterday in attempt to force the bank into a mortgage buyback. According to Bloomberg News, the complaint alleges that the bank breached “representations and warranties” on the mortgage loans underwriting their securities, at least 413 of which had loan-to-value ratios of more than 95 percent, when Countrywide had claimed no loan had such a ratio. [more]

The Bank of New York Mellon has called off its search for a new, 450,000-square-foot office, according to Crain’s. The bank, headquartered at One Wall Street, had engaged in a high-profile real estate hunt, consulting with World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein and tapping Jones Lang LaSalle for its search. A spokesperson for the bank said that none of the properties it considered worked for Mellon in the long term and that the bank is “no longer exploring relocating our corporate headquarters in New York.” [Crain's]

A group of tenants are planning to protest today at the Bank of New York Mellon, which holds the mortgage on what they say are poorly maintained East Harlem apartment buildings. The tenants’ landlord, British investment firm Dawnay Day, purchased 47 rental buildings in the neighborhood for $225 million in 2007, at the height of the market, intending to slowly replace low-income residents with affluent ones who would be charged higher rents as the area gradually gentrified. The recession hit Dawnay Day hard — some analysts say the firm was one of the largest real estate insolvencies of 2008 — and those East Harlem properties, containing 1,100 apartments, are now facing foreclosure. Low-income tenants there say that after Dawnay Day tried to force them out, the firm’s failure has left them even worse off: their apartments are neglected and have rats and gaping holes in their ceilings and walls. Dawnay Day had hired Michael Kessner, the son of the buildings’ former owner, Steven Kessner — one of the Village Voice’s 10 worst city landlords in 2006 — to manage the properties before the company folded, and now his family may end up the landlord there once again. “At the right price,” Michael Kessner said, he would bid on the foreclosed buildings. [NYT]

The owners of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park are expected to refinance the building Monday. The $1.275 billion loan is one of the biggest private financings since 2007. The money, which took building owners Durst Organization and Bank of America nine months to get, will be used to pay back a $950 million loan on the building, to repay investors and to finish work on the tower. Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Wells Fargo Bank, Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank and Helaba Bank are providing the financing. Douglas Durst, the Durst Organization’s chairman, said securing the financing for the tower was part of what allowed him to resign as the company’s co-president. He will stay on as chairman. [more]