Starwood Capital's Barry Sternlicht

JDS Development Group, the company behind the recent conversion of the Ralph Walker-designed Verizon building on West 18th Street, has purchased a majority interest in a development site formerly owned by Starwood Capital at 105 West 57th Street for $40 million, the company told The Real Deal today.

The firm is planning to break ground on a new 100,000-square-foot, mixed-use retail and luxury residential project in the spring or early summer, a spokesperson for JDS said. The project, which will rise to over 50 stories between Sixth and Seventh avenues, will feature condominium units as well as a significant retail component, the spokesperson said. [more]

From left: Barry Sternlicht and the former Donnell Library at 20 West 53rd Street (building credit: PropertyShark)

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital, along with Tribeca Associates, is bringing the five-star hotel brand Baccarat to Midtown. According to the New York Post, the partnership will flag the fourth through 12th floors of its 45-story development project at 20 West 53rd Street with the hotel name. [more]

Emily Beare (top), Vickey Barron and 210 West 18th Street

JDS Development’s conversion of the Verizon building in Chelsea will yield 53 condominium units priced between $3,000 and $10,000 per square foot, the New York Times reported.

As The Real Deal previously reported, the project is a joint venture between JDS Development and Property Markets Group and obtained equity from Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital. It is set to hit the market in this spring under Core, which told The Real Deal yesterday that it selected Vickey Barron and Emily Beare to head the marketing effort. [more]

From left: Tribeca Associates co-founders William Brodsky and Elliott Ingerman and Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht

Starwood Capital and Tribeca Associates have finished acquiring surrounding air rights and are beginning construction on the 45-story condo and hotel tower planned for the former site of the Donnell Library in Midtown.

The New York Post reported that Tishman Construction has begin excavation work at 20 West 53rd Street for the 340,000-square-foot building’s foundation. [more]

From left: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Barry Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Capital, Stephen Benjamin, principal at Dermot Company, and Robert Toll, president of Toll Brothers

The contenders to redevelop Brooklyn Bridge Park’s residential and hotel components have been whittled down to three from seven, sources told Crain’s.

The three with their hats still in the ring are the Dermot Company, Toll Brothers and a partnership consisting of Starwood Capital and Alloy Development, Crain’s said. [more]

From left: Starwood CEO Barry Sternlicht, Moinian Group CEO Joseph Moinian and a rendering of 237 West 54th Street

Developer Joseph Moinian and partner Starwood Capital Group paid $6.125 million to the Shubert Organization for 25,000 square feet of air rights that will be used for the development of a hotel at 237 West 54th Street, a source familiar with the deal said. [more]

Barry Sternlicht

From the August issue: Barry Sternlicht started his company, Starwood Capital Group, during a downturn — and recently he’s been expanding it, especially here in New York.

Since the beginning of the year, Sternlicht, the firm’s chairman, has been ramping up his Manhattan deal-making.

The brains behind the iconic “W”brand, he’s picked up a slew of Manhattan properties in the last few months, including 1414 Avenue of the Americas, and the former Donnell Library on West 53rd Street, among others.

While Sternlicht has been one of the most active real estate players of the downturn, the focus on New York marks a shift from 2009 and 2010, when he concentrated on distressed properties in other parts of the country. Notable was his company’s 2009 deal to buy a 40 percent stake in Corus Bank’s distressed loan portfolio for $554 million after the lender was shut down by regulators. [more]

A partnership of Tribeca Associates and Starwood Capital has closed on the $67.4 million purchase of the former Donnell Library at 18-30 West 53rd Street, Real Estate Weekly reported. The purchase marks the latest step in a long process to develop the building into a new 120-room, five-star hotel with a new space for the library, a project that would cost around $400 million.

Orient-Express Hotels had signed a similar deal in 2007, under which it agreed to buy the site from New York Public Library for $59 million; that deal was never finalized. The Donnell branch, which is across from the Museum of Modern Art and is known as the home of the original Winnie-the-Pooh doll collection, shuttered in 2008 following the deal, but Orient-Express backed out of its development plans in 2009 after the market crashed.
[more]

In a sign of Wall Street’s recovering interest in commercial property, banks such as Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are weighing bids for parts of Anglo Irish Bank’s $9.5 billion U.S. real estate portfolio, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The portfolio, the largest to hit the market since the start of the recession, offers a relatively low risk opportunity to jump back into commercial property, the Journal said, as the majority of debt is concentrated in large cities such as New York, California and Chicago. There are around 250 properties in total.
“It’s the first foreign bank to sell its entire U.S. loan portfolio, and it will be a good test of the market,” said Robert Ivanhoe, head of the global real estate practice for the law firm Greenberg Traurig. [more]

Dune Real Estate Partners has agreed to pay $190 million for Anglo Irish Bank’s mortgage loan on the embattled Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side, the Wall Street Journal reported. The note, which had a face value of around $300 million, had several interested bidders, including Starwood Capital, in an offering that had been ongoing for months. Dune now plans to work with Alexico Group, the developer of the landmark, 84-year-old hotel, whose renovation and partial co-op conversion had landed the property in financial straits. Comments

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