Starwood Capital is raising money for a new investment fund, CEO Barry Sternlicht said yesterday at NYU Schack’s capital markets conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and may also choose to sell a key portfolio as the government discourages the fund from leveraging its assets (see photos from the day-long event above).

“We want to leverage the portfolio and the government doesn’t want us to,” he said. “We’re going to have to sell it because it’s stupid to own it unleveraged. Our leverage levels are less than 30 percent. It’s crazy.”

Starwood previously raised $2.8 billion through two funds in 2010 — the Starwood Global Opportunity Fund VIII, which raised more than $1.8 billion, and the Starwood Capital Global Hospitality Fund II, which raised $965 million, The Real Deal previously reported. [more]

From left: Rudin Management’s Bill Rudin, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and Regional Plan Association’s Robert Yaro

Rudin Management’s Bill Rudin and Regional Plan Association’s Robert Yaro are among 20 appointees to Governor
Andrew Cuomo’s search committee for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new chairman and CEO, according to a statement released by the governor’s office today.

Current Chairman Jay Walder announced last month that he was resigning
to become CEO of the MTR corporation in Hong Kong. Rudin is president of Rudin Management and is also chair of the Association for a Better NY. – Miranda Neubauer [more]

Community activists opposing the Rudin family’s proposed takeover of the St. Vincent’s Hospital campus in Greenwich Village dropped their court appeal without ever appearing before a judge. According to the Wall Street Journal, the activists, led by former City Council member Alan Gerson, will pursue less costly options. The group had appealed a Bankruptcy Court ruling in April that approved the sale of the campus, on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th streets, to Bill Rudin for $260 million. [more]

From left: Douglas Durst, Jody Durst, Andrew Cuomo, Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias

What do Douglas and Jody Durst, heads of the Durst Organization, Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias of SL Green and Governor Andrew Cuomo have in common? They topped the Observer’s annual list of the 100 most powerful people in New York real estate. Carlos Slim, believed by some to be the world’s richest person, Sam Zell and Gary Barnett headline the notable newcomers to the list, while old money like Peter and Anthony Malkin and Bill Rudin also place in the top quarter of the list. Finally, the newest presidential candidate, Donald Trump, jumped two places to 14th on the list from last year, and and Mitchell Steir and Michael Colacino are the highest ranking working brokers, both at No. 33. [NYO] [more]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the $260 million sale of the Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan to the Rudin family and North Shore-LIJ today, paving the way for a new emergency response medical center and a mixed-use residential project on Seventh Avenue in Greenwich Village. The Rudin family takes over the portion of St. Vincent’s on the east side of Seventh Avenue where it will develop 590,000-square-foot residential property. TRD [more]

A group of medical tenants is seeking to stay put at the St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center building that North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System wants to clear out for a new $110 million health care center that would include an emergency room and surgery facility. According to Crain’s, the doctors renting space at the O’Toole Building, on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th streets, are asking the federal bankruptcy court overseeing the St. Vincent’s bankruptcy case to refuse North Shore’s request to force them to leave. [more]

As part of the rescue plan for St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center, developer Bill Rudin and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System are planning a $110 million gut renovation of the six-story O’Toole Building, on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th streets, that would build a new Comprehensive Care Center and emergency department, operating as part of North Shore other recent takeover, Lenox Hill Hospital. The Villager has a comprehensive roundup of the plans, which include a 19,000-square-foot emergency department — larger than the St. Vincent’s emergency room that closed a year ago and the first free-standing emergency department in the metropolitan area. [more]

Devloper William Rudin’s four-year-long effort to build a Greenwich Village condo complex is finally nearing fruition — and experts say the timing couldn’t be better, according to Crain’s. The 300-condo unit development, which will also include five townhouses, will be built on St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers’ East Campus, with construction set to start sometime next year. The project had been stalled for some time due to St. Vincent’s bankruptcy, but multi-million contributions from the Rudins and healthcare provider North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System put the medical center back in business. [more]

From left: James Stuckey, dean of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and Michael Fascitelli, CEO of Vornado Realty Trust; Panelists from left: Larry Silverstein, Michael Fascitelli, Willliam Mack, Marc Holliday and Bill Rudin

“Sometimes being a REIT felt like being between a dog and a fire hydrant,” Vornado Realty Trust CEO Michael Fascitelli said this afternoon, reflecting on the past couple of years in the industry before a packed ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and pausing for effect.

But no longer.

While public real estate investment trusts suffered significant losses in the immediate aftermath of the real estate crash, they’ve bounced back with impressive vigor, Fascitelli said. Plus, he offered as proof, there were very few bankruptcies.

Speaking on a panel at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s annual conference on capital markets, Fascitelli was joined by Marc Holliday, who said that life is pretty good over at SL Green right now, too. [more]

The Hive at 55, the Downtown Alliance’s shared workspace at 55 Broad Street, welcomed 11 stranded employees from a Denmark-based creative media agency today as they waited out the lingering volcanic ash cloud that has paralyzed European air travel this week. The workers, who wrote on their blog that they had traveled to New York City for last week’s “99 Percent” conference at the Times Center, set up shop at the 4,000-square-foot space that was set up last year with financial support from the city’s Economic Development Corp. and landlord Bill Rudin. The Hive, which was intended for the media industry, has space for upwards of 30 people and offers a kitchen, lounge and conference room in addition to desks and private offices. Membership ranges from $25 per day to $500 per month. TRD