Charles Kushner and his Livingston, N.J. home

Kushner Companies CEO Charles Kushner, the owner of 666 Fifth Avenue and father of New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner with a checkered past, has put his Livingston, N.J. home on the market for just less than $2 million, Curbed reported. The two-story mansion at 30 Fawn Drive has 18 rooms in total, including seven bedrooms and five plus two half bathrooms, and sits on a 30,550-square-foot lot with a two-car garage, according to the Prudential New Jersey listing. [more]

From the July issue: Becoming successful in real estate is not easy. Not only does it take a stomach for risk, it also takes the ability to bounce back from failed projects — as many are trying to do now.
But once real estate executives achieve a certain level of success, they often seem to branch out to other areas of business.
For a while, the preferred next area seemed to be banking. Then, it was professional baseball and football teams. Now, all bets are off — or should we say on? — as a rush of real estate moguls get into horse racing and gaming, with the properties associated with these activities available at discounts. [more]

Jared Kushner

For Jared Kushner, the 30-year-old owner of the New York Observer and 666 Fifth Avenue, 2011 will be a defining year, according to the New York Times. Personally, Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, is pregnant and poised to give birth to his first son. Professionally, Kushner is working to modify the loans on the $1.8 billion purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue he and his company, Kushner Companies, made at the height of the bubble, and to ensure that the Observer remains relevant through its third editor-in-chief in two years. Kushner, the story notes, was born into real estate through his father Charles. He began making deals of his own as an undergraduate at Harvard University buying apartment buildings throughout Boston. [more]

The Real Deal ramps up for its sixth annual forum

Top row, from left: Nouriel Roubini, Pamela Liebman, Joseph Sitt; bottom row, from left: Mark Zandi, Dolly Lenz, Miki Naftali

Want to help us pick the panelists at The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum? Well, chime in on The Real Deal’s Facebook fan page or message us on Twitter. The topic of the forum: “The Road to Recovery.” Past panelists have included Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor, Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, Miki Naftali of the Elad Group, Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group, Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties and Charles Kushner of Kushner Companies. The event will be held Wed., Oct. 13, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Stay tuned for more event details. TRD

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The Real Deal ramps up for its sixth annual forum

Top row, from left: Nouriel Roubini, Pamela Liebman, Joseph Sitt; bottom row, from left: Mark Zandi, Dolly Lenz, Miki Naftali

Want to help us pick the panelists at The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum? Well, chime in on The Real Deal’s Facebook fan page or message us on Twitter. The topic of the forum: “The Road to Recovery.” Past panelists have included Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor, Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, Miki Naftali of the Elad Group, Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group, Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties and Charles Kushner of Kushner Companies. The event will be held Wed., Oct. 13, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Stay tuned for more event details. TRD

[more]

The Real Deal ramps up for its sixth annual forum

Top row, from left: Nouriel Roubini, Pamela Liebman, Joseph Sitt; bottom row, from left: Mark Zandi, Dolly Lenz, Miki Naftali

Want to help us pick the panelists at The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum? Well, chime in on The Real Deal’s Facebook fan page or message us on Twitter. The topic of the forum: “The Road to Recovery.” Past panelists have included Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor, Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, Miki Naftali of the Elad Group, Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group, Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties and Charles Kushner of Kushner Companies. The event will be held Wed., Oct. 13, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Stay tuned for more event details. TRD

[more]

Manhattan-based Kushner Companies is looking to buy AIG’s equity stake in a 17,000-apartment portfolio, according to Bloomberg news, as the insurance giant faces mounting pressure to pay back its $182.3 billion government bailout. Kushner had sold off the collection of apartments in 2007 for $1.9 billion, in what Jared Kushner, son of company founder Charles Kushner and a principal with the firm, described as a “strategic shift” away from suburban property ownership. The sale came on the heels of Kushner Companies’ purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion — which, at the time, was the most ever paid for a single building in the country. Kushner has offered between $165 million and $190 million for the equity interest, according to sources close to the deal. The portfolio of properties includes mostly middle-income, suburban apartment buildings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. [Bloomberg]

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From left, Charles Kushner, chairman of Kushner Companies, company principal and son Jared Kushner and 666 Fifth Avenue

The $1.215 billion securitized loan secured by the Kushner Companies
iconic Midtown office building at 666 Fifth Avenue was transferred to
special servicing yesterday as part of an effort to restructure the
loan, a company spokesperson told The Real Deal in a statement. Kushner
bought the building, located between 52nd and 53rd streets, for $1.8
billion from Tishman Speyer Properties in January 2007, at the time the
highest price ever paid for an office building. “The transfer of
the 666 Fifth Avenue loan was done at the request of Kushner Companies,
so that it could more easily engage in productive discussions with the
lender. The loan is not currently in default,” the statement said. Peter
Slatin, editorial director of commercial data tracking firm Real
Capital Analytics said the move was part of a trend in owners seeking
to reduce their debt. “They are clearly hoping to take advantage
of the increasing willingness of lenders to restructure to avoid what
could be a challenging situation since they not only bought at the top
of the market, they defined the top of the market,” Slatin said. [more]

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and 500 guests gathered at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, yesterday for the merging of two massive New York real estate families. Ivanka Trump, the daughter of real estate mogul Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer and son of New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner, became engaged July 16 this year. The Kushner-Trump wedding drew such bigwigs as Andrew Cuomo, Sheldon Silver, Rudy Giuliani and Amir Korangy, publisher of The Real Deal. The bride, who said via Twitter that she went on a “gorgeous hike” prior to the nuptials, wore a lace-sleeved gown, reportedly inspired by Grace Kelly. The weekend marriage will be followed by another, reportedly twice as large, reception this Wednesday, after which the couple plans to honeymoon in Africa. [Post] and

An AIG joint-venture firm requested a subpoena for CB Richard Ellis vice chairman Darcy Stacom for a videotaped deposition in its $25 million counterclaim against Kushner Cos. The firm, East Coast Residential Associates, wants to depose Stacom in
the case that stems from the 2007 deal in which it purchased 16,800
rental units located mainly in southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
for $1.9 billion. According to court documents obtained by The Real Deal, Judge
Martin Schoenfeld has ordered Stacom to appear for the deposition at 10
a.m., Oct. 21. Michael Fazio, attorney for East Coast, told The Real Deal that the subpoena would be served within the next day or two. Kushner Cos., the Florham Park-based real estate developer led by Charles and son Jared Kushner, also the publisher of the New York Observer, originally sued East Coast Residential in 2008, claiming it failed to hire 11 property managers that oversaw the rental properties in the portfolio. [more]