Harry Macklowe and 737 Park Avenue

Harry Macklowe’s development firm that is primed to carry out the $360 million condominium conversion of the pre-war apartment building at 737 Park Avenue, filed its first lawsuit related to the building this week, claiming a married couple living in a market-rate apartment is refusing to leave even though their lease expired last month. Macklowe’s company for the project, 737 Park Avenue Acquisition, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in New York State Supreme Court against Barry and Joan Shalov, seeking an order from the judge to force them out of the 21-story Lenox Hill building, at the corner of 71st Street, despite their desire to stay. Condo conversion experts predicted that it would not be easy converting the occupied building, with 103 apartments. The fact that Macklowe had to resort to a lawsuit to remove market-rate tenants living with an expired lease — presumably with no rights to stay — only underscores the potential challenges. [more]

Financial firm Thiam Management inked a deal for nearly 6,000 square feet at 510 Madison Avenue, for a price in the $90s-per-square-foot range, Real Estate Weekly reported. The space represents one of two pre-built office units on the eighth floor of the 30-story, 350,000-square-foot property. The other eighth floor space was recently leased to a financial firm called Africa Global for about the same price. “The leasing on the eighth floor is supportive of the continued interest in the building,” said Paul Amrich, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis, who along with Kerry Powers, represents the building’s landlord, Boston Properties. Real Estate Weekly notes that the renewed interest shows the building has come along way since funding issues plagued 510 Madison when it was controlled by Macklowe Properties. [more]

TEN23, the Equity Residential-developed, 100-unit rental building going up at 500 West 23rd Street near the High Line, is in its final phases of construction and will kick off its leasing efforts in the fourth quarter of this year, Tom Lebling, a senior vice president at the real estate investment trust, told the New York Times. Lebling said rents for studios will begin in the low $3,000s per month, while one-bedrooms will be asking in the $4,000s and two-bedrooms will range from the high $5,000s to low $6,000s. Pricey? Maybe. But according to Lebling, “once you see the finish product the demand will be there.” He expects move-ins to begin during the first quarter of 2012. [more]

The former Drake Hotel and Harry Macklowe

CIM Group has filed an application with the Department of Buildings to begin below-ground work at the site of the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue and 56th Street, signaling the beginnings of the building process at the long-stalled project. It’s still unclear what will rise from the site originally assembled by developer Harry Macklowe, who bought the Drake for $418 million in 2006 and demolished it. He defaulted on the debt the following year, and in 2010, Los Angeles-based CIM bought his $510 million construction loan and took over the project, agreeing to keep Macklowe involved. CIM’s application currently calls for a five-story development, but according to the Wall Street Journal, those plans could easily change. [more]

Boston Properties is nearing a deal to lease 66,000 square feet in its upcoming, and still mostly unclaimed, 510 Madison Avenue office tower to SAC Capital, the hedge fund owned by billionaire Steven Cohen, according to the Observer. Rumors of the negotiations surfaced months ago, but a lawsuit in which Cohen’s ex-wife accused him of insider trading had apparently put the talks on hold. A judge dismissed the case earlier this week, though, and sources said that clears the way for the lease signing to take place within days. SAC, which may get naming rights as part of the deal, is currently located at 540 Madison Avenue. [more]

Developer Harry Macklowe, who was infamously forced to relinquish nearly his entire real estate empire after a bad $7 billion real estate bet at the height of the market, is getting back in the game. Macklowe, who also lost a business partner in his son, William, as a result of his portfolio’s implosion, now has a new teammate in Prudential Douglas Elliman Chairman Howard Lorber. According to Crain’s, the pair just purchased the defaulted loan on a prime Midtown development site and is planning to build a residential tower there. Comments

Harry Macklowe and 125 West 55th StreetHarry Macklowe’s former deputy filed a $21 million lawsuit last month alleging the billionaire real estate mogul failed to share the proceeds from the sale of 125 West 55th Street to Boston Properties. Warren Cole, who worked for Macklowe from 1988 to 1999, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court Jan. 15, alleging Macklowe either kept the profits for himself or paid it to his family members. The complaint was just made available in public records. Macklowe sold the property for $443 million in 2008, according to Cole’s complaint, which noted that the property was saddled with a $200 million mortgage. [more]

Harry Macklowe and 46 East 57th Street, which CIM Group acquired last monthThe owners of two townhouses in the middle of the massive building site near the former Drake Hotel are refusing to sell despite years of prodding by hopeful developers, according to the Post. The townhouses, at 42 and 48 East 57th Street, are being eyed by CIM Group, which has assembled a large, mixed-use parcel between Park and Madison avenues, mostly through its acquisition of the former Drake hotel site from Harry Macklowe’s creditors after he defaulted in 2008. In addition to the hotel site on East 56th Street, the CIM-Macklowe assemblage includes buildings at 38, 40, 44, 46 and 50 East 57th Street, all of which the California-based private equity firm wants to raze. [more]

Harry Macklowe and 46 East 57th StreetCalifornia private equity firm CIM Group, which paid off lenders to take control of Harry Macklowe’s former Drake Hotel site at Park Avenue and 56th Street for $305 million, has acquired an additional property adjacent to the assemblage.

The CIM Group paid $42.5 million for the 18-foot wide townhouse at 46 East 57th Street, city records filed yesterday show. The California company picked up the five-story, 57th Street property through six separate deeds, with values between $417,057 and $14.2 million, city records show.

The five-story building would modestly widen the frontage Macklowe put together on 57th Street, if it is added to the site. [more]

From left: Harry Macklowe, Scott Rechler and 1330 Sixth Avenue

A group of investors led by Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty has signed a contract to purchase 1330 Sixth Avenue — the 40-story office building that Canadian lender Otera Capital took back from Harry Macklowe last year — for roughly $400 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The price, though far below the $500 million Macklowe paid for it in 2006, would likely put the deal amongst the largest of the year for New York City office buildings, sources said, and could be a sign of the commercial property market’s rebound. [more]