Courtyard at the Apthorp

Following months of legal maneuvering, a state Supreme Court judge has ruled that Anglo Irish Bank can finally sell the troubled mortgage loan backed by the Apthorp condominium on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Judge Jeffrey Oing issued an order Nov. 29 finally allowing Anglo Irish Bank to move ahead with the sale of the $385 million mortgage loan to Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, but sources familiar with the negotiations say a final agreement was still being worked out to complete the deal.

The Apthorp loan, which has a remaining balance of $225 million. just before the suit was filed Sept. 13, was one of the largest in a group of $5 billion in troubled loans to be acquired by Lone Star. Anglo agreed to sell its entire $9.5 billion U.S. portfolio after the Irish government took over the troubled lender and agreed to sell off all of its non-core holdings around the world. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo agreed to buy the remaining tranche of performing loans. [more]

Anglo Irish Bank said in a court filing yesterday that the developers of the Apthorp condominium, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, gave the lender the right to sell the property’s $385 million mortgage to a third-party by waiving a “no-assignment” clause in the loan agreement, and later defaulted on the loan by failing to meet sales targets.

The Apthorp developers, led by billionaire Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel USA, filed suit in state Supreme Court earlier this month asking a judge to block the sale of the loan to Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, claiming the transfer would threaten the viability of the project by creating uncertainty in the market, which would cut into sales.

Anglo Irish is selling the debt as part of a massive restructuring to exit the U.S. commercial real estate market. The lender is selling its entire $9.5 billion American commercial loan portfolio, and the Apthorp loan sale is part of a $5 billion sale of nonperforming and sub-performing loans to Loan Star. [more]

JPMorgan Chase has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over mortgages issued before the real estate collapse that have since soured, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes amid an SEC probe into the mortgage practices of several U.S. banks, including Credit Suisse, which was subpoenaed last week. The JPMorgan subpoena is seeking information related to Bear Stearns mortgage practices, after bond insurers alleged that the bank, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008, had demanded refunds from originators but then failed to share those refunds with sellers. [more]

Invesco closed on the purchase of the Elektra, a 32-story, 166-unit apartment building at 290 Third Avenue near 23rd Street with 5,200 square feet of ground-floor retail space, the company announced today. In March, The Real Deal reported that Invesco and its operating partner, Adellco, were in contract to buy the building for $125 million from a partnership comprised of JPMorgan and Adellco. The closing price was undisclosed. Sources told The Real Deal that the deal was closed largely between Invesco and Adellco, without much assistance from Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, the brokerage that marketed the property. TRD Comments

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More than 126,000 square feet of prime Financial District retail space has gone up for grabs at Downtown by Philippe Starck, the high-rise condominium conversion of the former JPMorgan headquarters at 15 Broad Street/23 Wall Street, and the marketing team is angling for a department store to fill the spot. (Though its New York City future may be somewhat dependent on how the court battle over 3 Columbus Circle plays out, Nordstrom is said to be looking). The firm has also kicked off its marketing efforts for 14,789 square feet at 35 Wall Street across the way. TRD [more]

As more banks put holds on their foreclosure proceedings, some experts warn that a protracted freeze on foreclosures could be detrimental to the overall economy, according to the Hill. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial are among the institutions that have announced suspensions in home seizures over the last two weeks, in response to growing concern over how these foreclosures are carried out. Anthony Sanders, a real estate professor with George Mason University, said that he’s concerned over how the foreclosure stall could impact the economy. “The moratoriums, both state-mandated and self-inflicted, can be incredibly destructive to the fragile recovery or the housing and housing finance markets,” Sanders said. “Consumers looking to get back into housing are even more fearful than before. This can lead to further house price declines.” [Hill]

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Bank of America is nearing a deal to refinance its eponymous tower at One Bryant Park for the second time in just 10 months, Crain’s reported. The 51-story office tower was last refinanced with a $1.28 billion three-year loan in June, in what was believed to be one of the largest single, private financing deals since the 2007 credit market freeze. This time around, the bank and its co-owner, the Durst Organization, are looking to obtain a 10-year, $1.3 billion loan from JPMorgan Chase. [more]

Banks are contracting their retail branches for the first time since 2002, according to research firm SNL Financial. After a decade of visibly aggressive expansion that pushed the number of bank branches up more than 15 percent nationwide, their parent corporations are reining things in. In particular, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services Group, which have each swallowed up the operations of smaller financial institutions since the downturn began, are closing hundreds of branches in order to limit overlap. But they’re not the only ones. With profits down and cost-cutting on the agenda, many banks that have survived the recession are becoming reluctant to spend the $1 million it typically costs to build new brick-and-mortar locations, which tend not to turn a profit for at least two years after opening. Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial is closing 121 branches in the first quarter of this year in a move that should save $21 million per year. JPMorgan had 5,154 branches nationwide at the end of 2009, a 5.9 percent decline from a year earlier. Still, while it’s contracting on the whole, the bank is homing in on underserved areas: a slew of Florida Blockbuster stores are currently being converted to JPMorgan branches. [WSJ]

Short story writer Caitlin Macy and her husband, JPMorgan Chase trader Jeremy Barnum, have purchased a $3.5 million duplex on the 10th and 11th floors of 1 Lexington Avenue, the landmarked co-op on the corner of Gramercy Park North. The couple lived in a duplex seven floors below it until 2006, when they sold it for $2 million and moved to an Upper East Side condo off of Fifth Avenue. Their new digs at 1 Lexington come with a 24-foot wide master bedroom, an 80-foot terrace and floor-to-ceiling French doors, and the package was so appealing that the Barnums signed a contract in four days, listing agent Gale Rundquist, of Prudential Douglas Elliman, told the Observer. Originally listed for $5.3 million in late 2007, interest in the apartment didn’t pick up until October 2009, at which point the family beat out several other prospective buyers for the spot, Rundquist said. Uma Thurman lives in a duplex on the eight and ninth floors, directly below the Barnums’ new one. Restaurateur Danny Meyer also owns an apartment in the buildling. [NYO]

Home builders stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds on taxes from up to five years ago as a result of the new tax break for businesses that President Barack Obama signed into law Friday. The tax break, part of the package that included an extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit and unemployment benefits, could grant big builders like Michigan-based Pulte Homes up to $450 million in tax refunds. Miami-based Lennar Corp. expects to receive between $200 million and $300 million. While such companies lobbied extensively for the refunds, many of those large builders have, in the meantime, built up large cash reserves by selling assets and hoarding cash in the immediate wake of the housing crash. Now, the top 10 builders have an average of $1.2 billion cash, up from the $616 million they had in 2007, according to JPMorgan. The tax break is like “giving them free money” at this point, said Rob Stevenson, a real estate analyst with investment bank Fox-Pitt Kelton. The larger impact of the law will be felt amongst smaller, private builders who might otherwise have shuttered, said Bill Killmer, vice president of advocacy at the National Association of Home Builders.

[WSJ]