From left: Donald Trump, president of the Trump Organization, Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, and Lois Weiss, real estate columnist for the New York Post

Compiled by Lauren Elkies

In the wake of Sandy Weill’s reported $88 million sale of his 15 Central Park West penthouse, The Real Deal wanted to touch base and see if real estate executives had any last minute predictions for the New Year since speaking with the magazine for the December residential market report.

Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, said to expect 2012 to be a bit of a repeat of 2011, while developer Donald Trump said “really good real estate will have excess value.” Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, predicts a “continuing strong demand for new condominium offerings all over town,” while Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, said “the euro will continue to be in trouble causing a flight to safety to the U.S. and particularly New York City, so New York City properties will trade at even lower cap rates.” Meanwhile, Citi Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman recently told amNY that 2012 would bring more development and fewer amenities to New York City’s real estate market. [more]

At The Real Deal‘s seventh annual forum last week’s at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, real estate pros gathered to watch debates between real estate attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey of the eponymous firm and Stuart Saft, chair of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department; developer Billy Macklowe of William Macklowe Company and John Catsimatidis, CEO of the Red Apple Group; and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty, and Lockhart Steele, founder of Curbed. In attendance were Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing and sales division, Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and Andrew Barrocas, CEO of brokerage MNS, all of whom stepped outside to talk to The Real Deal about the state of the market (see video above). — Katherine Clarke

[more]

Steven BaumBig changes could be coming to the New York State foreclosure process now that law firm Steven J. Baum, which handled about two out of every five foreclosure cases in the state, has shuttered, the International Business Times said.

Baum announced it was closing yesterday, after being investigated by the U.S. District Attorney and blacklisted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for allegedly mishandling foreclosure documents. The firm also generated controversy when photos of employees dressed as foreclosure victims were recently published in the New York Times. [more]

Is it any wonder that two litigators stole the show at The Real Deal’s seventh annual forum, which was structured as a debate between three sets of real estate professionals? (See a few photos from the forum above and look for the December issue for more.) Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey of the eponymous firm and Stuart Saft, chair of the real estate department at Dewey & LeBoeuf, faced off on whether litigation is harming New York City real estate — an animated discussion that had Bailey angling to settle a dispute with Saft from the podium (for a client with cancer) and Saft accusing Bailey of hurting the city with his tactics.

“When you litigate without thinking of the consequences and the macro [effects], it hurts the city of New York,” Saft said. [more]

The Real Deal’s seventh annual forum, “The Debate,” at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. Starting at 6:30 p.m., developer Billy Macklowe will debate Gristedes magnate John Catsimatidis. Then Curbed founder Lockhart Steele will face off against Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership. Finally, attorneys Stuart Saft of Dewey & LeBouef and Adam Leitman Bailey of his eponymous firm will go head-to-head. CNBC anchor Bill Griffeth will be moderating the event. It’s the big event of the year. If you move fast, you can still make it! Please tweet about the event and send questions using hashtag #trddebate. Comments

Stuart Elliott,
editor-in-chief of The
Real Deal

From the November issue: We won’t be bringing you a crowd that’s going to boo a soldier, cheer executions or applaud the death of an uninsured man, like we’ve seen at this year’s Republican presidential debates. But this month at Lincoln Center, The Real Deal‘s first debate — in which real estate bigwigs will square off against one another — promises to be a heated discussion of some of the key issues facing the industry today.
As far as we know, it will be the first real estate debate of its kind in New York City. The format is a departure from our usual annual panel discussion.
We have a bunch of prominent debaters lined up, and the issues that will be on the table on Nov. 16 are central to the livelihoods of those who work in real estate here in the city. [more]

The developers of the Upper West Side’s Apthorp condominium are planning to withdraw their lawsuit against Anglo Irish Bank, according to documents filed in New York state Supreme Court this past Friday, and will allow the lender to sell the property’s troubled $385 million building loan to Dallas-based Loan Star Funds.

Anglo, the senior mortgage lender at the troubled condo, at 2211 Broadway, blasted the developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, in a proposed order submitted to Judge Jeffrey Oing, detailing what it considers numerous attempts by the building sponsors to squirm out of their crumbling lawsuit, which sought to block the bank from selling the senior mortgage.

“Plaintiff’s current effort to dismiss this case in its entirety suggests that Anglo’s contention that this is a strike suit may well be correct,” Anglo Irish lawyers wrote in the proposed order. [more]

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Apthorp

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has shut down the sales office at the Apthorp, fined the developers $190,000 and ordered rescission for all contracted buyers following an investigation into misleading statements made to the AG months before they filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from selling their $385 million mortgage loan.
The Apthorp developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, filed suit against the troubled bank Sept. 12, alleging the sale of the $385 million Apthorp loan would “adversely impact sales” and potentially “threaten the conversion project itself.”
[more]

From left: Stuart Saft and the W Downtown Hotel

A U.S. District Court judge ruled against Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group in a closely
watched escrow dispute with buyers at the W New York Downtown Hotel and
Residences, a decision that lawyers say further establishes the applicability of the
Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act in New York condominium sales.

Judge Robert Patterson rejected a motion to dismiss the case by the Moinian Group,
which developed the 217-unit hotel and condo at 123 Washington Street, and
argued that the federal ILSA law does not apply to condos, but was designed to
protect consumers against fraudulent land sales.

ILSA law requires developers of newly constructed condo buildings to file a
property report and annual financial statements with the Department of Housing
and Urban Development if a building has 100 or more units. The suits allege that Moinian allegedly failed to provide required disclosure forms to buyers, and continued to sell apartments after the agency ordered the developer to temporarily suspend
sales at the building in late 2007. [more]

From left: Harry Macklowe, 737 Park Avenue and 150 East 72nd StreetDeveloper Harry Macklowe’s firm Macklowe Properties filed plans with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office to convert rental buildings at 737 Park Avenue and 150 East 72nd Street into condominiums, Bloomberg News reported. If the offering plan is approved by July 2012, closings could begin at the Upper East Side properties by late 2012 or 2013.
“The expectation is that we probably will be out of the recession by then and the economy will be booming and it will just be the right time to start selling apartments,” said Stuart Saft, head of the real estate group at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, who drafted the plans for Macklowe. [more]