Sam Zell, Chairman of Equity Residential

Equity Residential’s purchase of a stake in apartment builder Archstone was blocked by the estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings, as Lehman exercised the option to match the bid, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Equity, run by Sam Zell, offered $1.33 billion for 26.5 percent of Archstone, a major competitor of Equity’s. Lehman’s purchase is half of the position in Archstone owned by Bank of America and Barclays and brings its total stake in Archstone to 73.5 percent.   [more]

From left: Kent Swig, the site at 45 Broad Street and a rendering of Nobu Hotel and Residences

Lehman Brothers Holdings is expected to take control of a Kent Swig development site at 45 Broad Street at a foreclosure auction scheduled for next month.

Swig’s Swig Equities lost control of the site after Lehman filed to foreclose in 2009; the site was then put in the hands of a court-appointed receiver. Swig is named in the foreclosure suit, along with various organizations that have filed liens against him.

Among the other defendants are Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and other tenants, occupants, contract parties, lien-holders and others that may claim an interest in the property. The lien amount is $72.5 million in total. The auction will take place Nov. 16, according to PropertyShark.com. [more]

25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s former mammoth office building at 25 Broad Street may have finally come back to life as a 305-unit rental property thanks to Lehman Brothers Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported, after 80 percent of the 90 available units were rented in just two months.
With applications under review for the remaining units, more are now under renovation, the Journal said.
The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. 

Lehman took over the building after Swig defaulted on his mortgage in 2009. Swig paid $262.5 million to buy the former office property in 2005.

Swig had previously intended to transform it into a luxury condominium building. [more]

Having just leased the first 10 apartments at 25 Broad Street last month, Lehman Brothers Holdings lives on and is looking to make some profit from prime New York properties, and perhaps pay off some creditors, according to the New York Observer.
Set to update a bankruptcy court on plans next week, Lehman has apparently shifted its tactics. The firm is moving to sell its share of key Manhattan assets such as the old International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway, and is quietly considering a new development at 235 West Broadway in Soho, the Observer reported. [more]

The estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings has taken control of the 169,664-square-foot On the Ave Hotel at 2170-2178 Broadway at 77th Street for $191 million, a spokesperson for the estate confirmed. “The strategy of the estate has been to maximize the value of its properties — not to fire sale them,” she said.

According to Real Estate Weekly, Lehman has been involved with the property for at least a decade, having had a $31.7 million mortgage in 1997 with a previous owner. The estate’s path to obtaining control was not immediately clear. There was no recent lis pendens filed against the building, according to PropertyShark.com’s records, but the sale may have been a deed in lieu of foreclosure. [more]

The Lehman Brothers Holdings estate is looking to unload its 90 percent equity stake in the former International Toy Center building at 200 Fifth Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bank bought the 800,000-square-foot property in partnership with L&L Holding for $480 million in May 2007, after which its value plunged to below the value of the $390 million mortgage. But with the Manhattan office market on the rebound, and several big-name tenants — including Eataly and Tiffany & Co. — now in place, the property is again worth more than the debt, and Lehman, which has been holding on to many of its real estate assets on the assumption that the market will eventually improve, is now ready to sell. [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street is back in action as a rental building. A court-appointed receiver has tapped developer LCOR to put the 20-story building back on the market, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the leasing office opens today. The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. There are also hefty concessions: one month’s free rent, plus the elimination of broker fees for renters who sign on for one or two years. [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Lehman Brothers Holdings is seeking approval from the judge handling its bankruptcy case to restart Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street and turn the building into rental apartments. According to Bloomberg News, the bank said in a court filing that it plans to foreclose on both the conversion and on an adjacent development parcel at 45 Broad Street, and wants to invest $25 million to finish the job. Lehman has already poured $39.9 million into 25 Broad Street since Swig defaulted in 2009. As part of completing the 281-unit project, the bank would demolish the building’s south wing and transfer its 64,000 square feet of development rights to 45 Broad in order to attract potential buyers for the latter parcel. Comments

Lehman Brothers Holdings is soliciting development partners for 75 real estate projects in 19 states, executives who received the Lehman proposals told Bloomberg News. Among the potential partners Lehman has its eye on: PulteGroup, Toll Brothers, Standard Pacific, DMB Associates, FivePoint Communities and Newland Communities. The company has some $2 billion in residential and master-planned communities in its portfolio, and all of the partners its bankruptcy restructuring firm has reached out to have experience developing those types of projects. [Bloomberg]

Manhattan-based L&L Holding Company has been hired to head the redevelopment efforts at Lehman Brothers Holdings’ 695 East Main Street, also known as Financial Centre, in Stamford, Conn., the company announced. L&L, whose portfolio includes the International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue and 150 Fifth Avenue, plans to spend 12 to 16 months transforming the vacant, 580,000-square-foot complex, which once housed General Reinsurance Corp., into a more modern, multi-tenant property. Lehman won control of the building in federal bankruptcy court in New York City earlier this year. TRD [more]