From left: Kara and Stephen Ross at a benefit for the Everglades Foundation at the Breakers in Palm Beach; Larry and Klara Silverstein, with their daughter Lisa and son-in-law Tal Kerret, at the New York Philharmonic (credit: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg News)

From the December issue: The holiday season is upon us, and New York’s society scenesters are busy with glittering galas and luncheons. Real estate moguls are no strangers to these events, and clusters of the industry’s biggest players can be seen at almost every party.

“People from the real estate world really do make a splash,” said Amanda Gordon, the social columnist for Bloomberg News. “The business is all about relationships, so they thrive at events where they can develop relationships that may bear fruit later, or celebrate those [relationships] that have worked out really well for them.” [more]

SL Green Realty CEO Marc Holliday was this year’s real estate honoree at National Jewish Health’s 43rd annual New York fundraising event, held Saturday night at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown. The event consistently draws a strong real estate presence, as it was founded by developer Larry Silverstein, and this year proved no exception. Many big names in the industry were among the 1,271 attendees, mostly real estate-related professionals, that helped raise more than $3 million for the newly created Holliday Memorial Fund for Lung Cancer Research at NJH. — Marc Becker [more]

Starwood Capital is raising money for a new investment fund, CEO Barry Sternlicht said yesterday at NYU Schack’s capital markets conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and may also choose to sell a key portfolio as the government discourages the fund from leveraging its assets (see photos from the day-long event above).

“We want to leverage the portfolio and the government doesn’t want us to,” he said. “We’re going to have to sell it because it’s stupid to own it unleveraged. Our leverage levels are less than 30 percent. It’s crazy.”

Starwood previously raised $2.8 billion through two funds in 2010 — the Starwood Global Opportunity Fund VIII, which raised more than $1.8 billion, and the Starwood Capital Global Hospitality Fund II, which raised $965 million, The Real Deal previously reported. [more]

From left: Wharton Properties President Jeff Sutton; Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green; Jeffrey Gural, chairman of commercial brokerage Newmark Knight Frank; 1552 Broadway and 1560 Broadway

SL Green Realty and joint venture partner Jeff Sutton have found a way to possibly triple the
retail space at the 15,000-square-foot 1552 Broadway in Times Square without
making the building any bigger.

Because constructing new floors at the landmarked commercial building is
severely regulated, they are going horizontal into neighboring 1560 Broadway,
a 17-story office building controlled by Newmark & Co. Real Estate, a property
landlord that is an affiliate of the commercial brokerage Newmark Knight
Frank.

SL Green and Sutton, president of Wharton Properties, closed on the
$136.55 million purchase of the four-story 1552 Broadway Aug. 19 [more]

SL Green Realty has stepped in to help developer Joseph Moinian stabilize his investment in 180 Maiden Lane, a 1.1 million-square-foot office building in Lower Manhattan, the Wall Street Journal reported, but Moinian will pay heavily for the aid.
SL Green, a mezzanine lender on the downtown property, has agreed to help Moinian restructure $292 million worth of debt in return for an ownership stake of 49 percent in the office tower, sources told the Journal.
Moinian’s debt on the building reached special servicing early last year, but he managed to extend deadlines to 2012, thanks to help from advisory firm Iron Hound Management. Another deadline is on the horizon however, as an 800,000-square-foot lease by American International Group is set to expire in 2014. [more]

From left: Steven Roth, Stephen Ross, Darcy Stacom, Marc Holliday and Norman Sturner

From the July issue: These days — with credit tight and lawsuits sprouting like weeds — no real estate transaction is simple. Whether it’s a one-bedroom condo or a distressed office building, sales are often slower and more complicated than expected.
That said, some deals have so much “hair” on them that they deserve special recognition. This month, The Real Deal took a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most complicated deals in the last year. These include some of the city’s highest-profile transactions, such as Google’s $1.77 billion purchase of the Chelsea office building at 111 Eighth Avenue. The building’s owners were able to lure the technology behemoth into an all-cash deal, but only after they spent a nerve-racking two weeks — during which the property was not actively marketed — waiting for Google’s top brass to approve the record-setting sale.

[more]

U.S. real estate investment trusts paid out a whopping $192.3 million to the top 20 highest-paid CEOs in the industry last year, for an average of $9.6 million per executive, according to SNL Financial. That’s up from $104.7 million, or $5.2 million per CEO, in 2009.

While it’s true that REITs did well last year, CEO compensation far outpaced their companies’ performance — across the REIT sector, shareholders saw a return of 28.9 percent; the top 20 highest-paid REIT CEOs saw an average 83.6 percent pay increase.

Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green Realty Trust, took home $24.8 million last year, making him the highest-paid REIT executive in the country and marking a 117.6 percent increase over his compensation during the year prior. [more]

From left: Douglas Durst, Jody Durst, Andrew Cuomo, Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias

What do Douglas and Jody Durst, heads of the Durst Organization, Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias of SL Green and Governor Andrew Cuomo have in common? They topped the Observer’s annual list of the 100 most powerful people in New York real estate. Carlos Slim, believed by some to be the world’s richest person, Sam Zell and Gary Barnett headline the notable newcomers to the list, while old money like Peter and Anthony Malkin and Bill Rudin also place in the top quarter of the list. Finally, the newest presidential candidate, Donald Trump, jumped two places to 14th on the list from last year, and and Mitchell Steir and Michael Colacino are the highest ranking working brokers, both at No. 33. [NYO] [more]

SL Green Realty, the real estate investment trust that is the city’s largest owner of office properties, reported an increase in earnings for the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg News. The landlord said in a statement yesterday that its funds from operations rose to $74.7 million last quarter, or 93 cents per share. That’s up from $69.1 million, or 87 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009, and SL Green attributed the uptick to its growing rental income. [more]

Top row, from left: Howard and Steve Rubenstein, Donald Trump, Mort Zuckerman; bottom row, from left: Jerry Speyer, Dottie Herman and Pamela Liebman

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the most powerful man in New York City — so says the New York Observer, which released its annual list of the top 150 most powerful New Yorkers. This year’s ranking included 24 influential real estate players, including real estate PR bigwigs Howard and Steve Rubenstein of Rubenstein Communications (ranked 17th and 78th, respectively), Donald Trump (19th), Boston Properties honcho Mort Zuckerman (20th), Tishman Speyer co-founder Jerry Speyer, Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman (53rd) and Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group (89th). The list included a handful of surprises, as well. TRD [more]