From left: Neil Rubler of Vantage, 90 Ellwood Street and 566 West 190th Street (credit: PropertyShark)

Lone Star Funds yesterday asked a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to appoint Newmark Knight Frank President James Kuhn as a receiver over a multi-family building portfolio in a second foreclosure case involving Vantage Properties.

Dallas-based Lone Star, after acquiring the loans from Anglo Irish Bank, filed a lawsuit March 6 to foreclose on the portfolio, which includes 473 units in 10 low-rise apartment buildings in Washington Heights, Harlem and other neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan. [more]

For the first time in 41 years, a woman has been the recipient of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Urban Leadership Award.
Mary Ann Tighe, head of CB Richard Ellis’ New York sales region and chair of the Real Estate Board of New York, was given the award at last night’s dinner at the Waldorf Astoria with around 700 real execs in attendance (see photos above).
Developer Larry Silverstein literally brought Tighe to tears as he talked about her career achievements and her family.

James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, said “when they invited Tighe to be this year’s honoree he didn’t know about the transaction that [in his mind] might turn out to be the biggest transformational deal in his lifetime. That of course is the Conde Nast deal down at the World Trade Center.” Tighe represented Conde Nast in the transaction.

Tighe said that her success has been due in part because she has through the years chosen the “right clients, the right deals and the right partners.”
Michael Alfano, executive vice president at New York University, announced that the school would be building a university in Shanghai and be the first outside-degree granting institution in China. – Marc Becker

From the October issue: As commercial buildings change hands and landlords seek to squeeze more
profit out of their properties, full-service brokerage firms are
sharpening their knives for what insiders believe will be a feeding
frenzy for new office leasing opportunities. A building’s leasing agent — a firm such as CB Richard Ellis or
Cushman & Wakefield — represents the landlord in leasing
negotiations, and such contracts often are packaged with overall
building management. Unlike the residential new development condo market, where buildings
change marketing agencies frequently, most agents at commercial
buildings remain in place at a building for years with very little
turnover, records show.

Left to right: Paul Massey, Woody Heller, James Kuhn

Manhattan investment sales brokers struggling to determine values for trophy office properties in a market lacking in comparable sales are looking at the stock prices of a local real estate investment trust for guidance. While brokers said the technique of using a stock price does not provide an exact value, it gives some indication as to what properties are worth. Other brokers discounted the idea, and some had not heard of it at all. SL Green is the best choice among the REITs because the majority of its portfolio is Manhattan office buildings, said Woody Heller, executive managing director at Studley. But using stock values to determine property values is at best a poor solution brokers resort to because of the thin amount of trading. Normally brokers look to comparable sales to determine capitalization rates, price per square foot and other metrics, but this year has yielded just one significant, arms-length office sale, at 1540 Broadway in Times Square. [more]