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

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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]

Barclays is seeking to emblaze its own brand outside the top floors of its tower at 745 Seventh Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported. The British bank wants to make its mark on the Manhattan skyline by turning the top of the building, between 49th and 50th Streets, into a lantern and installing 10-foot letters and a 13-foot-6-inch-high version of the Barclays eagle emblem on all four sides of the exterior façade. Currently, the top of the building, which contains mechanical equipment, is sheathed in a clear glass curtain wall. The bank wants to cover that glass in a film that would make the curtain wall translucent rather than transparent and illuminate it from the inside to create a lantern effect on the skyline. In September 2008, Barclays took over the Lehman Brothers Holdings headquarters building and promptly staked its claim to Times Square by adding its logo to the
tower’s trademark video screens over Seventh Avenue. [WSJ]

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The lenders for the Midtown development where Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding
was slated to build Shangri-La Hotel, New York, have filed to foreclose
on $144.2 million in loans and fees used to buy, plan and develop the
site, court records say. ING Real Estate Finance and Swedbank sued to foreclose on the loan to
Park Avenue Hotel Acquisition, a company registered at the address of
developer Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding, which was slated to develop the
Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts’ tower at 610 Lexington Avenue, at 53rd
Street. The borrower was unable to refinance its loan by an April 8 deadline,
and so ING determined the loan was in default on June 15, the filing
says. [more]