The Milstein family is nearing a deal to sell the 1,300-room Milford Plaza hotel for around $200 million to a partnership led by Rockpoint Group, according to the Wall Street Journal. The hotel, which sits between a number of Broadway theaters at 700 Eighth Avenue between 44th and 45th streets, has been closed since December for a major renovation project that was suspended indefinitely in March. The owner, an affiliate of Milstein-controlled Ogden Cap Properties, hired Atlanta-based brokerage Hodges Ward Elliot soon afterward to “test the market and see what the interest is” for the property. The terms of the deal aren’t final, but the Journal argues that the potential sale signals that the Manhattan commercial property sales market is heating up. [WSJ]

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Howard Milstein, head of Milstein Properties

Howard Milstein, head of Milstein PropertiesEmigrant Savings Bank, the struggling Milstein-owned institution and the lone major city holdout in the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, received $30 million in capital infusions from the Milsteins during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a recent report to the Federal Reserve. The Milsteins’ fourth-quarter contribution brings the total to $200 million injected into the unprofitable bank over the past three years. With a junk credit rating and a “negative” outlook from Fitch Ratings, Emigrant continues to post losses on real estate and business lending and failed private equity investments. Its parent company, New York Private Bank & Trust Corp., posted a net $256 million loss last year and took $267 million in federal bailout money. Still, Eric Newell, a debt analyst at Fitch Ratings, said “the bank’s capital position seems to improving.” But it may need even more donations from the storied Milstein dynasty, back on the radar with the impeding sales launch of two condo towers in Batter Park City, in order to absorb future losses. Emigrant has only 3 percent of tangible capital, compared with the 5.6 percent average of its peer group. [Crain’s]  

30 Lincoln Plaza and Howard Milstein

A group of tenants at Milstein family condominium conversion 30 Lincoln Plaza has filed a lawsuit against the sponsor and the attorney general, claiming a “fire sale” of units in the building resulted in an “egregious miscarriage of justice” against tenants. Facing a December 2008 deadline for the offering plan to be declared effective, Milstein slashed prices for non-tenants, selling units for 40 to 60 percent less than the prices tenants had paid, according to the suit, filed Dec. 21 in New York State Supreme Court. The suit, which reveals the “vastly reduced prices” of units in the building (see accompanying chart after the jump), offers a glimpse into the challenges faced by developers after the financial crisis of 2008. The suit claims that the condo offering plan “unlawfully discriminated” against tenants and failed to adequately disclose certain material risk factors, and that declaring the plan effective was “erroneous” and “an abuse of the attorney general’s discretion.” In the suit, tenants asked that the attorney general rescind the approval of the amendment that declared the plan effective. The suit was filed by tenants Vera Salnikova and Scott Petepiece, and an unspecified number of members of the 30 Lincoln Plaza Ad Hoc Tenants Committee. [more]