Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital Group

Starwood Property Trust, the real estate investment trust led by Barry Sternlicht, reported fourth-quarter earnings of almost $40 million in the fourth quarter, about even with year-ago figures, but said it was reviewing about $1 billion in potential deals and expects to close a majority within the next two months.

The Greenwich, Conn.-based firm said fourth-quarter earnings were $39.8 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with $39.3 million, or 42 cents in the year-ago quarter. Net income, however, tripled to $41 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with year-ago net income of $17.6 million, or 32 cents in the year-ago quarter. [more]

Curbed kicked off the July 4 Hamptons holiday weekend with an opening party last Thursday at the new Banzai Burger at 2095 Montauk Highway on on the Napeague Stretch in Amagansett (see photos above). Hosting were Curbed’s own Lockhart Steele and Nick Leighton. As The Real Deal reported last month, Banzai Burger is the brainchild of well-known hospitality publicist and Hamptons regular Steve Kasuba and restaurateur Alex Duff. The pair signed a 15-year lease for the 3,000-square-foot space, which seats 100 people and is shoes-optional.
– Richard Lewin
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The landmark 50th Aloft property at 216 Duffield Street, between Willoughby and Fulton streets, is slated to open today after being delayed since the start of 2011, according to Hotel Chatter.
A June stay in the 176-room Downtown Brooklyn hotel, originally scheduled to open in May, starts at $174.30 per night for a king room. There’s a fitness center, free wifi, and rooftop bar with views of the Brooklyn Bridge. [more]

Starwood Hotels & Resorts said it will open its fourth Four Points
by Sheraton hotel in the Financial District in 2013 under an existing
development agreement with the Lam Group.

The 264-room property, to be located at 6 Platt Street, will be the eighth Starwood
Property developed by the Lam Group and the fourth New York hotel to
open under the Four Points brand. John Lam, CEO of the firm, acquired the development site in 2007. The Lam Group has developed more than 20 hotels in New York over the past 10 years and currently owns and operates 10 properties. [more]

From left: Stuyvesant Town, 300 Broadhollow Road and the Westin Ft. Lauderdale

Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded a pool of commercial real estate loans
led by Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a Florida hotel and a
Melville, N.Y. office property.
Fitch said the $2.42 billion loan pool, sold under the name Cobalt 2007-
C2, has 57 loans of concern, representing 38 percent of the pool, and 15 of
the loans are in special servicing, representing 17 percent. The current loan
balance is $2.32 billion.
The Peter Cooper Village and Stuy Town loan represents the largest
percentage of the pool, or 10.3 percent, and remains in special servicing
under CW Capital. The 80-acre site, with more than 11,000 units, is
currently under new management with Manhattan-based Rose Associates,
which declined to comment. [more]

Crexus Investment Group said yesterday evening that it rejected an unsolicited $254 million acquisition offer by Starwood Property Trust. In the late afternoon yesterday, Starwood made the $14-a-share-offer to acquire Crexus, a Manhattan-based real estate investment trust. The Starwood offer was contingent on Crexus suspending its previously announced offer to buy $586 million in real estate assets from Barclays Capital Real Estate Finance. Crexus planned to launch an initial public offering of $50 million shares of common stock, which would be used to finance the acquisition of the Barclays assets. [more]

Blackstone Group is set to buy the U.S. shopping mall assets of Australian landlord Centro Properties Group for $9.4 billion after beating out bids from a Morgan Stanley-Starwood Capital partnership and a joint venture of NRDC Equity Partners and Area Property Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, which includes 588 shopping centers, would be Blackstone’s largest since its acquisition of Hilton Worldwide in October 2007 and indicates an optimistic bet on U.S. retail, according to Bloomberg News. Among the properties Blackstone is slated to take over is Yonkers’ Highbridge Plaza, as well as several malls in Westchester and Long Island. [more]

Andre Balazs isn’t the only big-name hotelier with his eye on the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s boutique hotel project at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Wall Street Journal dropped a few more hints today as to who might soon be jockeying for the opportunity to build a 150-room hotel adjacent to Eero Saarinen’s Trans World Airlines Flight Center, among them: Donald Trump, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and pod hotel owner-operator Yotel. Comments

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Morgan Stanley’s global real estate fund and Starwood Capital Group are planning a joint bid for the U.S. shopping centers owned by troubled Australian landlord Centro Properties Group, according to Bloomberg News. Centro, whose roughly 600 U.S. properties were 88.3 percent leased as of June 30, put its assets on the block after falling victim to its own overzealous U.S. buying spree during the real estate boom. Among Centro’s properties are several malls in Westchester and Long Island, including Highbridge Plaza in Yonkers. Tenants include T.J. Maxx and Marshalls parent company TJX as well as grocery giant Kroger. [more]

Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer and a rendering of the W New York Downtown

Roughly 70 percent of buyers thus far at the new W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences are international, the Moinian Group’s Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer told Dr. Lori Sokol yesterday during her morning radio show on AM1490. Finkelstein-Bayer, the senior managing director at the development company and the woman charged with overseeing the new 58-story property, said foreign buyers in particular are treating the condos as a “significant investment opportunity,” given the billion of dollars being poured into the redevelopment of Ground Zero over the next decade. The long-delayed W, which will have 223 private residences and 217 hotel rooms, will finally open June 28, though the BLT Bar & Grill downstairs may be opening one week earlier, Finkelstein-Bayer said. [WGCH]

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