By Yaffi Spodek, Candace Taylor and Amy Tennery

After a mid-winter lull, The Real Deal is back in the swing of things, hitting up the week’s most exciting real estate events. We quizzed the experts at the Young Jewish Professional’s networking event, including Ilan Bracha, the New York Keller Williams franchise honcho who recently defected from Prudential Douglas Elliman, Crown Acquisitions CEO Stanley Chera, and Charles Bendit, the Taconic Investment Partners CEO, whose company recently sealed a $1.8 billion deal with Google. Also, we mingled at Soho rental building 55 Thompson’s cocktail mixer and caught up with Elizabeth Stribling, founder of Stribling & Associates, at the Brooklyn Roundtable, where she gave us the scoop on her move out of Manhattan. Click here to see more. [more]

St. Vincent’s Hospital has received 23 bids for its 555 Sixth Avenue apartment building, with several topping the $48 million offer
from Taconic Investment Partners, sources told Crain’s. St.
Vincent’s filed for bankruptcy in April and will use proceeds from the
sale to pay back its creditors. The 180,000-square-foot building is
near West 15th Street and boasts 178 apartments and a 90-car parking
garage. The sale is being handled by Grubb & Ellis. Experts told
Crain’s that the property could be turned into rental or condo
apartments, but could also appeal to schools or hospitals looking to
house their staff. [Crain's]

[more]

St. Vincent’s Hospital has received 23 bids for its 555 Sixth Avenue apartment building, with several topping the $48 million offer
from Taconic Investment Partners, sources told Crain’s. St.
Vincent’s filed for bankruptcy in April and will use proceeds from the
sale to pay back its creditors. The 180,000-square-foot building is
near West 15th Street and boasts 178 apartments and a 90-car parking
garage. The sale is being handled by Grubb & Ellis. Experts told
Crain’s that the property could be turned into rental or condo
apartments, but could also appeal to schools or hospitals looking to
house their staff. [Crain's]

[more]

From the June issue: Having transformed from blighted neighborhood to artists’ enclave,
Hunts Point in the South Bronx was poised to take the typical
four-decade route to gentrification that culminates in wine bars, Whole
Foods and an Apple store. But these are not typical times, as one
developer there has discovered. Taconic Investment Partners bought the
fortress-like American BankNote Building, a landmarked
400,000-square-foot, three-building commercial complex in Hunts Point,
for $35 million at the end of 2007, “in the good old days,” said
Taconic partner Douglas Winshall. [more]