Howard Michaels in his office at 560 Lexington Avenue last month.From the October issue: Thirty-four years ago, Howard Michaels was knocking on doors in the 2.3 million-square-foot Starrett-Lehigh office building, hawking copy machines for the 3M Company.

“I was making bupkis,” Michaels recalled.

Those days are undoubtedly over. In 2004, he arranged a $219 million recapitalization of that same building, earning a seven-figure commission for his company, a real estate investment advisory firm known as the Carlton Group.

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Clockwise from top left: Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies, the Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue, Eastdil Secured’s Doug Harmon, Howard Michaels of the Carlton Group and Anthony Westreich of Monday Properties

From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began.
This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded.
In the second part of the series, Monday Properties held onto a stake in the iconic Midtown tower at 230 Park Avenue but took a large hit to its equity share in the property. At the same time, other former owners such as one of Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Street funds, bowed out entirely when Invesco Institutional and a Korean pension fund bought a 95 percent interest in the building. Click here to read the story. [more]

Carlton’s Howard Michaels

Howard Michaels‘ Carlton Group has reached the number one spot among New York City office investment sales brokerages for the first time thanks to demand for recapitalizations, the New York Post reported.

Carlton ranked number six nationally for the first half of the year based on $1.1 billion in total volume of debt and equity financings. Eastdil Secured came in at number one with over $4 billion.

Carlton’s New York figures are due to three local recaps valued at $1.1 billion — at 1 Park Avenue, 1180 Sixth Avenue and 450 West 33rd Street, according to the Post.

“Typically, recaps haven’t been recognized as investment sales, but they’re the exact same art,” Michaels said. With $850 billion in commercial mortgages due to mature by the end of the year, according to CoStar Group, Michaels anticipates even more demand for recaps, “due to the widening out of spreads in the CMBS market, which is lowering loan levels, and the sluggish economy.” [more]

Developer Harry Macklowe closed this afternoon on the $70 million acquisition of a 34-unit rental apartment building at 150 East 72nd Street that his Macklowe
Properties expects to convert to condominiums.

Macklowe financed the Lenox Hill purchase and anticipated rehabilitation of the
72,000-square-foot, pre-war building through a total of $120 million in equity
and debt, according to a statement from Macklowe’s exclusive advisor on the
transaction, Howard Michaels, chairman of investment banking firm Carlton
Group. [more]

Manhattan-based real estate investment bank the Carlton Group is expanding into Europe in an effort to become a bigger player overseas, according to Crain’s. The expansion has already begun with the firm opening a London office in April. Howard Michaels, chairman and chief executive, says Russia will be next, potentially opening by the end of 2011. Michaels is attempting to cash in on changed attitudes amongst foreign investors. “Everyone always said overseas investors have an increased appetite in Manhattan. Today that has never been more true,” he said. [more]

From left: 1180 Sixth Ave., Norman Sturner, president of Murray Hill Properties, and Howard Michaels of the Carlton GroupHoward Michaels has saved the day at 1180 Sixth Avenue, bringing in an anonymous Chinese investor to bail out the owners before a planned foreclosure auction by mezzanine debt holder Shorenstein Properties, according to the Post. Norman Sturner’s Murray Hill Properties and the Carlyle Group had defaulted on their mortgage payments in January after buying the 23-story property, between 46th and 47th streets, for $300 million at the height of the market. Shorenstein filed to foreclose late last month. [more]

Top row, from left: Joy Browne, the kitchen at her apartment at 21 South End Avenue, and the kitchen at 146 Central Park West.
Bottom row, from left: Howard Michaels with his listings: an exterior and interior shot of the Lucida at 151 East 85th Street, and the Stanhope at 995 Fifth Avenue.

Radio psychologist Dr. Joy Browne has two things in common with the fictional Frasier Crane. One, she answers callers’ on-air questions about life and love. And two, she has a fabulous apartment. Now Browne’s 2,600-square-foot riverfront duplex at the Regatta condominium in Battery Park City is on the market with L.G. Fairmont Group’s Derek Lee for $3.4 million, or $18,000 per month to rent. In addition, Howard Michaels, the chairman and CEO of international real estate investment banking firm the Carlton Group, last week put his 5,200-square-foot Lucida spread on the market with Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang for $11 million, along with his Stanhope apartment, which is priced at $11.5 million. Also, a 6,000-square-foot apartment is up for grabs at the San Remo, the iconic twin-towered co-op which Bono, Rita Hayworth and Steven Spielberg have called home. Unit #6E6F at 146 Central Park West hit the market over this past weekend for $24.75 million with Bellmarc’s Dan Fishman. Click here for more.

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Howard Michaels, chairman of the Carlton Group

Real estate investment bank the Carlton Group has launched a mobile platform that allows users to bid on properties from their phones, according to Howard Michaels, the company’s chairman. The platform works in conjunction with the company’s auction Web site, Carlton Exchange, which underwent a revamp late last year. The software is the first of its kind in the industry, said Michaels, who hopes that the program will streamline the buying process. “It makes the buying of distressed assets [easier] for the investor,” Michaels said. “It’s a trading platform for investors to meet motivated sellers.” The national mobile system will allow users to not only bid 24 hours a day, but also to access its database of loans and properties. And with billions of real estate loans reaching maturity, Michaels said it’s a good time to make the buying process easier. “We’re the busiest we’ve ever been,” Michaels said. Comments

Howard Michaels, chairman and CEO of the Carlton Group

With the volatile real estate debt market, now is certainly an interesting time to become further entrenched in the industry — so says Howard Michaels, the chairman and CEO of the Carlton Group, which recently launched the Carlton Exchange Web site where investors can auction off real estate loans. Michaels sat down with the New York Times to discuss his firm’s new site and some of his most memorable deals. Michaels said that, given the current market climate, now is an ideal time to launch the auction Web site. “The banks will get more exposure for their assets, the bidders can go to a central location to see what’s available,” Michaels said. “But it’s not an auction in that it has to be sold right away. It’s more like the Multiple Listing Service you have for homes.”