From left: Sam Zell of Equity Residential, Bob Toll of Toll Brothers, Will Silverman, Woody Heller, both of Studley, and 400 Park Avenue South

In the most expensive development site deal of the year so far, home builder Toll Brothers and real estate investment trust Equity Residential partnered in reportedly paying $134 million for a large development site at 400 Park Avenue South.

The joint venture plans to build a 40-story condominium and rental apartment tower at the Park Avenue South and 28th Street site, which has 400,000 square feet of development rights, the companies said in a statement.

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential will own and operate the lower 22 floors with 265 rental apartments and retail, while Toll Brothers will build and sell about 100 condo units on the upper floors, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

From the November issue: Three autumns ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers knocked the wind out of New York’s real estate industry. Home sales flattened. Prices plunged. And, as layoffs mounted, office buildings emptied out. While there have been some spurts of activity, the industry has not gotten back to the highs of the boom. In fact, as the unemployment rate still hovers at an uncomfortably high level, and Wall Street (a once-reliable real estate engine) reports losses, it seems that a complete recovery might be years away.

All the same, there are signs of comebacks — whether they are from developers who once defaulted on mega-loans and seemed like pariahs, or stock prices that have bounced back from the doldrums at some public real estate companies. There are also geographic stretches of the city that had been pocked with empty retail spaces and empty condo buildings, but are now filling up with stores and residents. There are even some bankers who had been caught up in the subprime mess who are now back on the lending scene in a big way. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Extell Development President Gary Barnett, the Rushmore and Carlyle Group co-founder William ConwayAttorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office faced off with lawyers
representing Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners yesterday as
a Manhattan Supreme Court judge heard what may be the final arguments
in a long-running effort to overturn a $16 million escrow dispute at the
Rushmore condominium.

Judge Anil Singh was urged to overturn the April 2010 ruling by former
AG Andrew Cuomo, who ordered the developers to refund $16 million
in deposits to 41 buyers at the luxury condo building at 80 Riverside
Boulevard close to 64th Street.

The case centers on whether the developers missed a Sept. 1, 2008 deadline
to close the first sale at the 289-unit building, or whether a scrivener’s
error in the offering plan mistakenly included the wrong date, which the
developers insist should have been Sept. 1, 2009, giving them a one-year
window to finish construction and close the first deal. [more]

1180 Sixth Avenue and Norman Sturner, president of Murray Hill PropertiesShorenstein Properties is foreclosing on its mezzanine debt at 1180 Sixth Avenue after owners Murray Hill Properties and the Carlyle Group defaulted on their mortgage payments last month, Crain’s reported. The joint venture purchased the 23-story property, between 46th and 47th streets, for $300 million in 2007, but ran into financial trouble there after the market crashed. As a result, Murray Hill Properties had recently hired the Carlton Group to help it hold onto the 400,000-square-foot tower, with chairman Howard Michaels reportedly hunting for another $245 million. [more]

Experts say that 666 Fifth Avenue’s record-breaking retail lease signing last week is a sign of market recovery, according to the Wall Street Journal. Japanese retailer Uniqlo nabbed 89,000 square feet of space in the building, owned by the Kushner Companies, Crown Acquisitions and the Carlyle Group, for a record $300 million over 15 years. The retail space at the Midtown skyscraper is fetching an average rent of $2,500 per square foot, trumping the rents seen at several noted shopping neighborhoods worldwide, including the Champs-Elysees in Paris and the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. [more]

Kuwaiti conglomerate National Industries Group is suing the Carlyle Group, a building sponsor at Extell Development’s Rushmore towers at 80 Riverside Boulevard, for allegedly misrepresenting the financial health of its affiliate group, Carlyle Capital Corp, which collapsed in March of last year. National Industries Group had invested $50 million in Carlyle Capital, a public debt fund, allegedly under the impression that the fund was going to be invested in triple-A mortgage-backed securities, as was allegedly advertised. The debt fund’s collapse, one of the earliest bucklings in the financial downturn, was seen as a major blow to the Carlyle Group’s reputation in the Middle East, the Financial Times reported, and a cautionary tale regarding the range of diversity within private equity portfolios. The Carlyle Capital Group reportedly culled $600 million in private investments and another $340 million when it was publicly listed.

Already battling at least 34 buyers trying to back out of their sales contracts, Extell Development is facing a lawsuit from a Wall Street executive claiming that the Rushmore condominium tried to defraud her of her $1 million-plus deposit refund, and failed to obtain key city approvals. Kelly Coffey, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court Sept. 29, alleging the Upper West Side building’s sponsor missed the Sept. 1, 2008 closing deadline by five months, and then illegally amended the offering plan to deny buyers the right to get a refund. “Instead of offering the plaintiff the right to rescind the agreement, as required by the offering plan, the defendant sponsor’s 16th amendment to the offering plan states that purchasers have no right of rescission related to the first closing,” attorneys Philip Hines and Marc Held wrote in the complaint. [more]