Boston Properties’ Mortimer Zuckerman (top), Harry Macklowe and 510 Madison

Boston Properties has scored its first office tenant at 510 Madison Avenue, the new, vacant building on the corner of East 53rd Street that the company purchased from Harry Macklowe for $275 million earlier this year, Crain’s reported. The lease, for the entire 28th floor, was signed by Senator Investment Group at more than $100 per square foot, sources said. While Senator may turn out to be the first firm to relocate to the 30-story tower, it isn’t the first to agree to take space there.
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In a pair of sit-down interviews this week, William “Billy” Macklowe opened up — barely — about his split from his father, Harry’s, Macklowe Properties, what he learned from the collapse of the Macklowe empire and his just-launched venture, the William Macklowe Company.

He was tight-lipped with the Observer, refusing to talk even about cooking because, as he put it, “so much has been written about the past and all that, it’s just not an area that I really wish to comment on.” He contended, though, that he was “not tightly coiled at all,” as the reporter had observed.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Macklowe was more relaxed. He told the publication: “one lesson we’re absolutely going to take away from this is no short-term financing,” when asked about Macklowe Properties’ debt woes and the decision to sell off trophies like the GM Building. He fought back against the notion of being the so-called “poster child” for the real estate bust, nominating other notorious failures like the General Growth Properties bankruptcy and Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village foreclosure for the title.

Still, his peers weren’t as kind. “Billy Macklowe is a guy who woke up on third base and thinks he hit a triple,” one anonymous broker told the Observer. Another said, “he was really mean to people when they were on the top of the world, and unfortunately that’s what people are remembering right now… but at the end of the day, he’s a really talented guy with a high aesthetic.”
[NYO] and [Bloomberg]

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William “Billy” Macklowe, the son of real estate titan Harry Macklowe, took a bold step in striking out on his own in the world of New York real estate, but the 42-year-old entrepreneur seemed to tread cautiously in an interview with the New York Times this past weekend, his first since he launched his new venture. Macklowe split from his father’s Macklowe Properties, where he was CEO, earlier this year in the wake of the property empire’s high-profile unraveling and launched William Macklowe Company, which he said would focus on real estate acquisitions, strategic lending and investment. Though he said he’s put in bids on a number of properties, the company has yet to win anything. And while he is nearing a deal on a Manhattan office building, he declined to be more specific, citing the current market as a reason. When asked whether he would have done anything differently, in retrospect, with Macklowe Properties, he said, “I would answer that question by saying that I look forward to moving ahead, and lessons learned will manifest themselves in investment decisions.” As for his father, Macklowe said “he was understanding of what I needed to do” and that “now it’s my turn.” [NYT]

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510 Madison and Harry Macklowe

O’Connor North America, the junior mezzanine lender at 510 Madison
Avenue, has filed suit to force developer Harry Macklowe to open up the
building to an investment group that will help investor Jeremiah
O’Connor buy out the loan [more]

From left: William Macklowe and Harry Macklowe

All is not right in the Macklowe house: William Macklowe and his father, Harry Macklowe, have parted ways — in the business world, at least — according to Crain’s. Sources say that the younger Macklowe has split from Macklowe Properties and has inked a lease for a full floor of office space at 126 East 56th Street, where he will launch his own company. [more]

510 Madison

From the May issue: At first glance, the nearly completed 510 Madison Avenue, designed by the firm of Moed de Armas & Shannon and developed by Macklowe Properties, might look like just another example of the sort of building that already abounds in Midtown Manhattan. This office tower, rising 30 stories from a six-story base, is a structure of glass and steel much like 20 others that have adorned the avenue over the past 50 years. But to the experienced student of architecture, there is a barely definable quality to the building that distinguishes it from its neighbors. The quality that I speak of is quality itself, the sense that the architectural firm involved knew what it was doing, and that it refused to cut corners in its design or in the cost of materials. [more]

510 Madison Avenue, Harry Macklowe of Macklowe Properties (top) and Marc Holliday of SL Green (bottom)

A week after fending off a foreclosure action at 510 Madison Avenue, developers Harry and William Macklowe and real estate investment trust SL Green Realty are facing a lawsuit from another industry heavyweight that wants a piece of a $65 million insurance payment.

O’Connor North American Property Partnership, led by Jeremiah O’Connor, filed suit against Macklowe Properties, alleging breach of contract, and SL Green, alleging breach of contract and unjust enrichment for allegedly failing to share the insurance proceeds stemming from the massive 2009 fire at 510 Madison. The 510 Madison building has been embroiled in controversy for years. It was one of the last commercial buildings in the Macklowe Properties portfolio after the developer was  forced to sell off the trophy General Motors building in 2008 help pay off billions of dollars in debt. [more]

510 Madison Avenue, Harry Macklowe of Macklowe Properties (top) and Marc Holliday of SL Green (bottom)

SL Green Realty is going to trial with Macklowe Properties over 510 Madison Avenue. SL Green, which recently purchased the debt on the 30-story tower and also picked up 600 Lexington Avenue from Hines Interests earlier this week, had planned to foreclose and take control next week on the grounds that Macklowe violated the terms of the loan. Macklowe’s lawyers said Harry Macklowe and his son, Billy, were entitled to two six-month extensions. A New York state Supreme Court judge ruled earlier today that the ownership battle will have to be settled in a trial, for which the date remains unclear. The property has only one tenant, investment firm Jay Goldman & Co., which is ensnarled in another legal battle with Macklowe as it tries to back out of the lease. [Crain's]

From left: 1330 Avenue of the Americas, 527 Madison Avenue (Source: PropertyShark). The buildings were part of a portfolio of Anthracite loans on which BlackRock lost millions last year.

Struggling real estate investment trust Anthracite Capital filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation yesterday, the company announced. As Crain’s reported, the BlackRock affiliate, which made real estate loans and bought debt from other lenders, defaulted on its debt and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange just a few months ago. Shareholders are not expected to recover anything, and any value recovered by unsecured creditors “would be minimal,” the firm said in a statement. BlackRock, a publicly-traded asset management firm based in Midtown, said last year that it expected to lose $53.2 million on two Anthracite loans for five present and former Macklowe Properties office buildings, including 1330 Avenue of the Americas, which Macklowe has since lost to foreclosure, and 527 Madison Avenue, which Macklowe sold. Richard Shea, Anthracite’s president and chief executive, is a managing director at BlackRock. TRD
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510 Madison Avenue, Harry Macklowe of Macklowe Properties (top) and Marc Holliday of SL Green (bottom)

Developer Harry Macklowe will face off in court April 14 to block SL Green from foreclosing on 510 Madison, amid claims that the company is engaged in a predatory attempt to buy his new office tower after it was damaged in a 2009 fire.
Macklowe, after filing yesterday in New York State Supreme Court, was granted a hearing next month to determine whether SL Green can move forward with a scheduled April 20 auction of the property’s mezzanine debt.
Lawyers for Macklowe claim that SL Green wants to cash in on the property despite an agreement he had to extend his original construction deadline. SL Green acquired the senior mortgage and mezzanine loans in December and called in a new default after a new appraisal showed the building was underwater. [more]