Tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have received an alternative partnership offer just days after it was revealed they had partnered with Brookfield Asset Management to explore buying the properties, Crain’s reported.

A partnership between developer Gerald Guterman and Westwood Capital issued letters to tenants today, reminding them of a proposal Guterman and Westwood sent them in 2010. The duo’s plan involves converting all units in the complex to co-ops, which the tenants would then buy for close to $175 per square foot. [more]

Gerald Guterman, whose Condo Recovery firm bought more than 12,000 New York-area rental apartments and turned them into condos and co-ops in the 1970s and 1980s, is preparing a bid for a co-op conversion of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Bloomberg News reported. Stuy Town has been embroiled in a dispute between creditors after owner Tishman Speyer Properties defaulted on a $3 billion mortgage in January. Guterman said he met with agents of the more than 25,000 tenants who live there and he has discussed the proposal with CW Capital Asset Management, the representative for the senior debt holders. Condo Recovery’s plan is dependent on CW Capital winning a lawsuit against junior lenders who are trying to seize control of the 80-acre complex. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management and Winthrop Realty Trust want to lead their own co-op conversion after buying $300 million of junior debt. [Bloomberg]

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Following the news that Jonathan Miller is involved in a new venture to convert $1 billion in distressed condos, The Real Deal asked the city’s best-known appraiser whether this could impact the credibility of his widely read reports. After all, quarterly market reports prepared by Miller — the president and CEO of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel — for Prudential Douglas Elliman, have become industry gospel in recent years. Now that he has an additional economic interest in the ups and downs of the market, does that amount to a conflict of interest? No, says Miller. Though he will have an equity stake in the venture, known as Condominium Recovery LLC, he will not be involved in the development end of the business. His job in the new company will be conducting appraisals of properties — his current bread and butter. “I’m still doing the same thing,” he said. “I’m not a developer — I’m on a team with a developer.” Miller said he has given the issue some serious thought. “This is something that I reviewed very carefully in the beginning,” he said. “Essentially, I’m brought in for valuation expertise. I’m not an operator. It’s no different than consulting with a developer.” Not everyone in the industry is so sure.  More [more]

Jonathan Miller, head of Miller Samuel, and Daniel Alpert, a founding managing partner with Westwood Capital

Veteran appraiser Jonathan Miller is teaming up with boutique investment bank Westwood Capital and Gerald Guterman, the apartment building owner and manager, in a new venture to convert $1 billion in new, distressed condo projects to rental apartments. The trio, dubbing themselves Condominium Recovery LLC, plans to make bulk purchases from struggling banks, starting with New York City and South Florida. “The whole question is, especially after all of the reserves are gone, do you take the unlimited liability and run with it, or do you deal with someone who has credibility and has the funds, and sell it to them on a reasonable basis, which today is a rental basis?” said Guterman, who has owned or managed more than 60,000 apartments over the past four decades. The group is looking to make an average 10 percent return on the properties, which it plans to hold onto for about four years apiece. After that, they could create a real estate investment trust or sell the rentals as co-ops or condos. [Reuters]

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