(source: U.S. Federal Election Commission)

In the last three months of 2011, New York City real estate executives gave more than six times as much to Republican political committees as Democratic groups, a review of federal election documents released yesterday shows.

Republican backers, including Vornado Realty Trust’s Steven Roth and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross, donated a total of $280,000 in the fourth quarter of the year to federal campaign committees, while Democrats contributed $43,300. An additional 10 donors gave $36,000 to political groups that back candidates in both parties (see partial list above and full list after the jump). [more]

Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross appeared on CNBC today to explain his support for Mitt Romney in the upcoming presidential election (see video after the jump), most recently exhibited by a fundraiser he threw for the candidate two weeks ago in Florida. [more]

Related has purchased a portion of restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events, Business Week reported. The pair will partner on future ventures, the first being Related’s Hudson Yards.

Meyer, of Shake Shack fame, sees it as an opportunity to extend his brand to stadiums and other properties that his products don’t currently reach, and Related gets the cachet that Meyer’s popular chains bring. [more]

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]

Adam Leitman Bailey represents owners at 20 Pine (left) and Stephen Ross (top right) is locked in an ILSA dispute with buyer Vasilis Bacolitsas (bottom right)

From the December issue: Not everyone has the stomach for a lawsuit — taking an otherwise private disagreement into the public realm and submitting it to the cool evaluation of the court.

But sometimes situations are untenable, and parties consider judicial intervention the only recourse. The resulting lawsuits can have a broad impact, reaching beyond the businesses involved to encompass the industry as a whole.

Consider the condominium contract dispute that could affect the way New York City developers handle purchase agreements for new condos. Or the suit between residential brokers whose failed alliance could become fodder for a jury trial. Or a federal agency’s offensive against a slew of major banks over mortgage-backed securities.  [more]

From left: Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE, Jimmy Kuhn of Newmark and 3 Columbus CircleAdvertising behemoth the Young & Rubicam Group will move into 340,000 square feet at SL Green’s 3 Columbus Circle, in a commercial condominium purchase and lease, the New York Times reported. The move marks the last major advertising agency to defect from Madison Avenue, the street that is synonymous with the industry as a whole.

Young & Rubicam took a condo interest in 214,372 square feet on floors three through eight, and signed a 20-year lease for 124,760 square feet on floors 9, 10, 18 and 19 at the 26-story tower. Three Columbus Circle, also known as 1775 Broadway, occupies the entire block between Eighth Avenue and Broadway at 59th Street. The deal includes naming rights for the building.
[more]

The Related Companies reimagined the design of the first phase of its Hudson Yards project this past summer, the Wall Street Journal reported, after Chairman Stephen Ross became disenchanted with the original renderings.

“I could tell that Stephen wasn’t in love with it,” Jay Cross, who oversees the West Side project for Related, told the Journal. “He felt he wanted the buildings to be more dramatic. And we found that the marketplace was looking for bigger buildings.”

The initial design, by William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates architecture firm, featured three strictly rectangular steel office towers, the shortest in the middle. [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: Related CEO Stephen Ross, Greek shipping executive Vasilis Bacolitsas and the Brompton

Lawyers for Related Cos., the developer of the Upper East Side’s Brompton condominium , asked the U.S. Circuit Court yesterday to overturn a lower court ruling under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act that critics charge would stifle new condo development by forcing sponsors to record sales contracts with city agencies even before a building is constructed.

In September 2010, Related, led by billionaire Stephen Ross, lost a closely watched ILSA case from Greek shipping executive Vasilis Bacolitsas and his wife, Sofia Nicolaudou, one of several buyers that filed suit in 2009 to get their escrow deposits returned at the building, at 205 East 85th Street, after the real estate market crashed. [more]

From left: Time Warner Center and a rendering of Hudson Yards

Now that Coach is on the books, Hudson Yards’ next office tenant could be Time Warner, according to the New York Post. The namesake of Related Companies’ Columbus Circle complex has been looking to downsize from the 864,000-square-foot space it owns at the Time Warner Center, and other city office space, in an effort to cut costs.

Related is considering offering the media giant an opportunity to swap its space for a smaller home in Hudson Yards. [more]