A deal to save Murray Hill Properties’ tower at 1180 Sixth Avenue has been completed.
The property, between 46th and 47th streets, was almost foreclosed upon when the Shorenstein Group, a mezzanine loan holder, bought the equivalent of the B-note for the property and started foreclosure proceedings, Norman Sturner, CEO of Murray Hill Properties told the New York Observer. Thankfully, a mystery Asian investor stepped in to rescue Murray Hill Properties’ prized tower. [more]
Atlanta-based global investment firm Invesco and its operating partner, Adellco, signed a contract to buy Gramercy Park residential building the Elektra for $125 million, two industry sources said.
Invesco and Adellco agreed in January to buy the 32-story high-rise from a partnership that also includes Adellco and is led by a J.P. Morgan Investment Management fund, the sources said. J.P. Morgan bought the building in 2006 for $92.5 million. This past December, investment sales firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler began marketing the 166-unit building located at 290 Third Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd streets, which it said was 97 percent occupied, an article from commercial trade publication Real Estate Alert said. [more]
From left: 1180 Sixth Ave., Norman Sturner, president of Murray Hill Properties, and Howard Michaels of the Carlton GroupHoward Michaels has saved the day at 1180 Sixth Avenue, bringing in an anonymous Chinese investor to bail out the owners before a planned foreclosure auction by mezzanine debt holder Shorenstein Properties, according to the Post. Norman Sturner’s Murray Hill Properties and the Carlyle Group had defaulted on their mortgage payments in January after buying the 23-story property, between 46th and 47th streets, for $300 million at the height of the market. Shorenstein filed to foreclose late last month. [more]
Vornado Realty Trust spent a total of $180 million to recapitalize and gain control of the 925,000-square-foot office building 1 Park Avenue from Norman Sturner’s Murray Hill Properties, which was in danger of losing the property to lenders.
The cash infusion included about $30 million in tenant improvement costs and other reserves, while at the same time Vornado secured $250 million in debt from a major investment bank, a person familiar with the deal, which closed last night, said. Murray Hill retained a small portion of the equity on the 20-story building located between 32nd and 33rd streets, the source said.
The original capital stack was comprised of a $375 million first mortgage, $100 million in mezzanine debt held by three companies and $120 million in equity. [more]
From the September issue: Norman Sturner is the co-founder and CEO of Murray Hill Properties, which has bought and sold $10 billion worth of commercial real estate since its 1971 inception, and manages over 5 million square feet of office space. The company’s holdings include 1414 Avenue of the Americas at 58th Street, which Ian Schrager is turning into a luxury hotel. Sturner talked to The Real Deal about marrying young, starting college at 16, shedding two out of three homes in order to travel and the qualities of his success: luck and perseverance. [more]
From the outset of the discussion on Manhattan’s commercial real estate market this morning, developer Kent Swig of Swig Equities gave a gloomier assessment than co-panelist and landlord Norman Sturner of Murray Hill Properties. Swig, at times waxing poetically about the troubles in the securitized commercial debt market, said although residential properties showed signs of stabilizing, the office market had farther to fall. “I don’t know if picking up is the right term,” he said of the commercial real estate industry. [more]
Ian Schrager and 1414 Avenue of the AmericasHotel developer Ian Schrager plans to turn the current Class B office
tower 1414 Avenue of the Americas into a luxury hotel. Building owner
Norman Sturner said that through expiring leases, the building will be
virtually empty by 2010, when $100 million in development work could
start. The 18-story building, at 58th Street, was built as a hotel and
its penthouse roof deck is where rock group Kiss sometimes held
parties. Sturner and investor David Werner bought the building in 2007
for $120.5 million, and planned to empty it out for residential or
hotel development. But as room rates and hotel occupancy drop, does
the city need another hotel? “You can get a room, and on selected
nights get it for $100, and I never thought I’d see that rate again,”
said John Fox of PKF Consulting. “Given where the market is right now,
we probably don’t need [another hotel].” [more]
