The Williamsburg property at 111 Kent Avenue has now hit the market as a rental, Brownstoner reported.
Asking rents at the building, between North 7th and North 8th streets, range from $2,705 to
$4,519 a month. In 2009, the building was on the
market as a condominium, and prices ranged from $575,000 to $1.1 million. It
was converted into a rental after being purchased by Laurence Gluck’s
Stellar Management this March. The waterfront property also features an outdoor
swimming pool, roof deck and courtyard.
[Brownstowner] 

Laurence Gluck-led Stellar Management requested to transfer its debt on Independence Plaza to a special servicer in an effort to extend the mortgage. Independence Plaza is a mixed-use complex in Tribeca that consists of 1,328 apartment units across three 39-story towers with 73,000 square feet of retail space and a 230,000-square-foot commercial parking garage. A spokesperson for Stellar Management said that the deal will not affect residents of the buildings, and that ownership still has a firm grasp on the property. TRD Comments

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From left: Blackstone CEO Stephen Shwarzman, Laurence Gluck, 1140 Sixth Avenue, Andrew Scandalios, and Rockpoint head Pat Fox

Private equity firm Blackstone was the winning bidder in the highly competitive process to buy the $116 million non-performing note for the leasehold on the entire building at 1140 Sixth Avenue, which is owned by Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group, sources said.
Blackstone will pay something close to — but a little bit less than — $100 million for the note held by German lender Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, sources said, but the precise figure could not be obtained. In addition, the owners have an agreement to transfer the leasehold to Blackstone, a source said, but it was not clear if Blackstone would pay for the title, or when the exchange would happen. [more]

Laurence Gluck and 111 Kent Avenue

Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management has purchased the stalled Williamsburg condominium project at 111 Kent Avenue for $24.6 million and plans to revive the property as a 62-unit rental. According to Crain’s, Stellar partnered with Largo Investments in the acquisition from Garrison Investment Group, which paid $43 million to take it off the original developers’ hands this past November. The developers had defaulted on their $1.3 million loan two years ago after listing the condo units for between $575,000 and $1.1 million apiece. [more]

1140 Sixth Avenue and Laurence Gluck

It’s a good day for investors looking to pick up commercial property debt: in addition to the $75 million senior mortgage at 80 Broad Street that just came on the market, Crain’s reported that a $116 million senior loan at 1140 Sixth Avenue is also about to hit the block. The 22-story building, owned by Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group, sits on the corner of West 44th Street and according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s Scott Latham, it is likely to draw “tons of interest” and as much as $600 per square foot. [more]

Steven Witkoff, CEO of the Witkoff Group, and Columbus House at 95 West 95th StreetIn a decision that lawyers say could impact 17,000 current and former Mitchell-Lama apartments statewide, an appellate court ruled Dec. 28 that tenants at Columbus House, a former Mitchell-Lama building on the Upper West Side, were protected against rent increases after the building was sold. The Witkoff Group, following the 2006 acquisition of 95 West 95th Street for $68 million, applied for rent increases for 248 individual apartments at Columbus House, but the applications sat at the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal for more than a year. In 2007, the state then moved to close a loophole that would have allowed landlords to convert thousands of Mitchell-Lama buildings to market-rate. [more]

Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management has scooped up Tivoli Towers, the run-down 320-unit rental building in Crown Heights, for $9.5 million, five years after he signed a contract on the property for around $5 million more than that. Based on Gluck’s track record of buying up rent-regulated buildings and converting them to market-rate apartments, city officials had initially opposed the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. But this time around, Gluck has agreed to keep Tivoli affordable until 2040 and spend $15 million on renovations to the building. The city’s Housing Development Corp. will finance the renovation project, which includes new elevators, roof repairs, security upgrades and kitchen and bathroom improvements, and will also help with the $30 million needed to pay off the building’s debt and other expenses. Gluck said he hopes the deal “creates some bonhomie” with the city after a number of unpopular deals, like Tribeca’s Independence Plaza North, which he removed from the city’s housing voucher program, and Harlem’s Riverton Houses, which ended up in foreclosure earlier this year. Stellar will take in 6 percent in annual management fee returns at Trivoli and expects the deal to be “mildly profitable” over the next 30-years. [WSJ]

[more]

From left: Laurence Gluck of Stellar Management, Neil Rubler of Vantage Properties, Kevin Davis of Area Property Partners and Ofer Yardeni of Stonehenge Partners

Ofer Yardeni of Stonehenge Partners gave the most optimistic assessment among a four-person panel today speaking about residential investment in real estate, saying his company w [more]

Gluck and 2 Rector Street

Developer Laurence Gluck is facing a $110 million foreclosure suit at 2
Rector Street from Bank of America, about a year after losing one of
his largest te [more]

Laurence Gluck, a low- and middle-income housing landlord widely scorned for his handling of the Riverton Houses complex in Harlem, could emerge from his semi-pariah status, according to the New York Times, as city and federal officials scramble to find an owner for the Tivoli Towers residential building in Crown Heights. Gluck, who had once angled for ownership of the 33-story affordable housing development, only to be thwarted by city officials, is in talks to buy the building for $11.25 million. The deal comes with a couple caveats: he has to complete approximately $15 million worth of needed renovations and pledge to keep the building affordable for the next 30 years. But while Gluck might be an appealing option for officials, Tivoli tenants express trepidation. “There are great concerns about Laurence Gluck taking over this property,” Alice Mitchell, a tenant at Tivoli, said. “It seems he’s a predatory developer.” Dina Levy, a director with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, described the scenario as somewhat of a Faustian bargain for residents. “They have to make a choice between getting desperately needed repairs and taking their chances living under Larry Gluck,” Levy said, “or fighting the deal and risking that the building sits in limbo, with no repairs getting done.”