From left: Midtown Equities' Joseph Cayre, attorney Steven Sladkus and the Blanca Lofts (credit: Google Street View)

Developer Joseph Cayre’s Midtown Equities has settled with the board of a small Upper East Side condominium that filed suit in 2009 alleging the building suffered from widespread construction defects, including mold, flooding and other problems, The Real Deal has learned.

The board at Blanca Lofts, a 10-unit building at 206 East 73rd Street, reached an agreement with Cayre to settle the case out of court, according to Wolfe Haldenstein attorney Steven Sladkus, who represented the board. [more]

Developer Joseph Cayre and 240-246 Bedford Avenue

Two under-the-radar but well-financed real estate investors, Joe Tabak and Joseph Cayre, are fighting over a valuable
Williamsburg development site on Bedford Avenue that each is trying to buy out of bankruptcy for as much as $22 million.
Yesterday, attorneys began to lay out competing plans to purchase the Backer Group’s 240-246 Bedford Avenue, at North 4th Street, in federal bankruptcy court in Brooklyn, but after several hours the hearing was adjourned until Sept. 7, according to a legal source and court records. [more]

From left: 205 Montague Avenue, Joseph Cayre, Paul Massey and David Schechtman

Joseph Cayre’s Midtown Equities has put the Downtown Brooklyn building that is home to brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services on the market for $49 million, only six months after Cayre bought the building for $33 million. Brooklyn has seen a 21 percent increase in total investment sales in 2010, rising to $962.5 million, compared to a year earlier when it was $796.8 million, figures from Massey Knakal show. However, those figures are still far below the market’s peak in 2007 when $3.8 billion in properties traded hands in the borough. [more]

Joseph Cayre and 242 Bedford Avenue

Discount clothing department store Marshalls and drugstore CVS are interested in leasing space in a troubled development site in Williamsburg, once the stalled construction project is completed, several brokers said. The national chain retailers are looking at a lower-level space at 242 Bedford Avenue, just south of North 4th Street, the brokers, who asked to remain anonymous, said. The half-built site is owned by Yehuda Backer’s Williamsburg-based Backer Group, which halted construction several years ago. Instead, the parcel has only steel shells with no current construction evident.
[more]

From left, Joseph Cayre, Robert Knakal, Michael Schor and 205 Montague Street

Treeline
has sold the former Brooklyn Savings Bank building at 205 Montague
Street — known as the place where Jackie Robinson signed with the
Brooklyn Dodgers — for $33 million,
Crain’s reported. According to Treeline, which owned the five-story
building for 15 years, the sale price was double their original
investment in the property. The buyer was Midtown Equities, a real
estate investment and development firm run by World Trade Center
investor Joseph Cayre. Treeline sold the 77,000-square-foot building
because the firm felt that it “was being paid a strong market price for
the asset,” Michael Schor, executive vice president of Treeline, told
Crain’s. He also said that 205 Montague is 100 percent occupied with
long-term leases in place. Current tenants include brokerage Massey
Knakal Realty Services, which had reportedly been looking to sublet its space there. Midtown Equities also owns 200 Montague Street, a neighboring building to its newest acquisition. [Crain's]

[more]

Joseph Cayre and 452 Fifth Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark)

The first major non-distressed office building sale Manhattan has seen in two years closed Tuesday, according to Globe St., with the $350 million sale-leaseback of the HSBC tower at 452 Fifth Avenue between 39th and 40th streets. The purchase was made by a special purpose vehicle known as 452 Fifth Owners LLC, which includes Joseph Cayre’s Midtown Holdings, Israeli-based Koor Industries, and Property and Building Ltd. Carl Schwartz, chair of law firm Herrick Feinstein’s commercial real estate department, said that the deal is a good omen for the market. “This transaction would be notable in any market, but represents a particularly good sign in light of the real estate world of 2010,” Schwartz said. “My sense is that there are lenders out there who want to put money out for the right deal.”

From left: Shaun Osher, CEO of Core, developer Joseph Cayre, and Blanca Lofts at 206 East 73rd Street

Developer Joseph Cayre and residential brokerage firm Core are facing a $10 million lawsuit by the Blanca Lofts condominium board, which is alleging widespread fraud, negligence and breach of contract in the construction of the Upper East Side building and the sale of its units. The suit against Cayre and Core comes as Blanca Lofts, a 10-unit condo at 206 East 73rd Street, faces two other lawsuits alleging widespread flooding, mold and other defects in the quality of materials and workmanship. The $10 million board suit, filed Dec. 21 in New York State Supreme Court, names Gadaleta and HHF Design Consulting, led by Helmut Hans Fenster, as defendants. It alleges negligence, fraud, misrepresentation and professional malpractice related to the architectural, engineering and consulting services at the building. HHF and Fenster, in court documents, denied the allegations and made cross claims against Cayre, Core and the other contractors. Fenster claims his firm, HHF, did engineering work, and if there is any negligence or fraud, it was done on behalf of the other defendants. [more]

With commercial property values spiraling downward, foreign investors are looking to inject capital into Manhattan’s premier buildings, but some experts say they’re too eager for their own good. There’s not enough product to go around, said columnist Lois Weiss, and foreigners are having trouble securing bids on properties, or even getting their calls returned. “Everyone shows up wanting to buy trophies on the cheap and thinks they’re going to steal the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building,” said Will Silverman of Studley’s capital markets group. Nonetheless, many foreign investors are succeeding in their efforts, and benefiting from exchange rates to boot. Recently, Joseph Cayre partnered with Israeli IDB Associates in purchasing 452 Fifth Avenue from HSBC at $400 per foot, and another Israeli company, Gilmore and Optibase, is acquiring SL Green Realty’s 485 Lexington Avenue at $560 per foot. The Middle Eastern Safra family is in serious talks to buy a 49 percent interest in 299 Park Avenue from UBS, and the Italian Sorgente Group purchased a piece of the Flatiron Building this week. [Post, 1st item]

Joseph Cayre of Midtown Equities and 452 Fifth Avenue (Photo source: PropertyShark)

Less than a day has passed since Midtown Equities and Israeli holding company IDB Group announced their acquisition of HSBC Bank USA’s New York headquarters at 452 Fifth Avenue, between 39th and 40th streets, but Joseph Cayre, founder and principal of Midtown Equities, said that there will be more deals like it. This was the first time Midtown Equities had teamed up with IDB, but
Cayre said the companies are now working on six or seven projects
together in New York City, where they will be “either buying buildings
outright or buying first mortgage notes from banks.” Cayre said at 452 Fifth Avenue he already has two parties seriously considering signing a lease on the top 18 floors that will be vacant come 2011. HSBC will continue to occupy the remaining 11 floors of the 29-story, 865,000-square-foot building, which went for $330 million, or $400 per square foot, for a 10-year term. [more]

From the September issue: New York real estate might be known for its big personalities, but there are a host of owners and investors like Frank Ring who shun the spotlight.

Some publicity-shy players are revered in the industry for having orchestrated some of the city’s biggest deals: Lloyd Goldman, Jeffrey Feil and Joseph Cayre, for example, are spoken of in reverential tones by commercial brokers as high-powered, big-money wheelers and dealers.

Still others are the stuff of local legends. Families like the Moskowitzes and the Trenkmanns are known for being multi-generational kings of small neighborhoods.  [more]