From left: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Real Estate Board of New York President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob SpeyerDuring the quiet month of December in an off-election year, a political lobbying group led by REBNY President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob Speyer has spent $2.8 million praising Governor Andrew Cuomo in television ads, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The ads, approved by the three-person executive team of the Committee to Save New York (the third member is Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City), claim that despite challenges Cuomo is “getting things done,” including creating a solid jobs plan and lowering taxes. [more]

From left: Tishman Speyer CEO Jerry Speyer, Hines Interests Chairman Gerald Hines and Simon Property Group CEO David SimonAs commercial construction remains stagnant in America, several high-profile American developers have turned to China for new projects, including several with notable ties to New York.

But for all the obstacles these developers are accustomed to encountering in the city, according to the New York Times there are even more hurdles to clear in China.

In addition to the obvious language and cultural barriers — for example, the Chinese do not consider a contract a binding agreement, and disputes with tenants are better settled over dinner than in a court room — unpredictable policy, layers of bureaucracy and the necessity of building local relationships make the prospect of development difficult. [more]

Stuyvesand Town and City Council member Daniel GarodnickThe New York state appeals court ruled today that tenants in the blockbuster lawsuit at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will be able to pursue millions in rent overcharges, tossing a move to dismiss the case by MetLife, the original landlord of the Manhattan complex (note: correction appended).

In 2007, Stuy Town residents, led by tenant Amy Roberts, filed a class action suit against Tishman and the previous landlord, Metropolitan Life, alleging they illegally deregulated apartments while receiving J-51 tax benefits, which are designed to help landlords renovate apartment buildings in return for keeping rents affordable.

The decision means that thousands of current and former tenants will be able to pursue more than $215 million in excess rent that was paid to previous landlord Tishman Speyer or MetLife, which had sold the complex to Tishman.
[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]

The Daily News’ publisher could soon be the New York Post’s landlord. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mortimer Zuckerman-led Boston Properties was one of at least seven groups that bid for the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Avenue in Midtown last week, along with SL Green Realty, Vornado Realty Trust and Tishman Speyer among others.

In June, Beacon Capital, which purchased the building for $1.5 billion in 2006, enlisted Eastdil Secured to market the 2 million square foot building for about $900 per square-foot, in what is widely seen as a test of whether the trophy tower market has returned to peak prices. [more]

From left: Attorney Sam Himmelstein, Stuyvesant Town and 56 Seventh Avenue (source: PropertyShark)

[Updated 2:47 p.m.] A New York state appellate court ruled yesterday that the landmark decision to protect rent-stabilized
tenants in the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village case should be applied retroactively, a move
that could open the floodgates to millions of dollars in rent overcharges at other developments.
The new case, in which the court actually upheld the landlord’s lower court victory, involved a
Manhattan couple looking to overturn a prior rent-decontrol ruling at 56 Seventh Avenue in the West
Village. The tenants argued that the Stuy Town case, called Roberts vs Tishman Speyer, where Roberts was a tenant, should allow them to have their market-rate apartment rents refunded in the form of overcharges.

“The Court of Appeals, when they decided Roberts , specifically left open the question of retroactivity,”
said attorney Sam Himmelstein, who represented the tenants in the new case. “Landlords have been
making motions to dismiss these cases saying that it shouldn’t be applied retroactively. Even though we
lost the case, it’s a massive victory for tenants at large.” [more]

There’s an antique collection of storage trunks — and potentially a community of insects and vermin — in the bowels of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. But in its latest issue, the New Yorker reported that property manager Rose Associates has begun sending letters to tenants asking them to claim their belongings, as CWCapital, which took control of the property after Tishman Speyer defaulted, tries to make better use of the space in advance of a sale.

The 110-building complex has offered tenants trunk storage space since the 1940s. [more]

A group led by Tishman Speyer has sold Two Gotham Center in Long Island City at a $100 million profit, for $415 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, a large Canadian public company, bought the 670,000-square-foot property, which is leased by the city’s Health Department. The building was completed a year ago and cost $316 million to develop. So far, Two Gotham Center is the only part of the planned 3.5 million-square-foot mixed-use complex to be developed near Queensboro Plaza. Tishman Speyer and the city are jointly the backers of the project. It wasn’t immediately clear why the group sold Two Gotham Center. [WSJ]

Kuwaiti investment firm Fosterlane Management, the former owner of the Lipstick Building and 350 Park Avenue, is getting back into the New York City real estate game with the purchase of Hines Interests’ 750 Seventh Avenue for $485 million, or roughly $808 per square foot, the Post reported. Earlier this week, the Observer reported that the 600,000-square-foot tower near 49th Street tower was in contract to sell to an anonymous offshore investor. Hines purchased the 36-story tower, half of which is occupied by Morgan Stanley, for $150 million in 2000 through a partnership with General Motors. [more]

From left: Dan Fasulo, Jahn Brodwin, Simon Ziff and Daniel Alpert

From the April issue: While those in the industry have been relieved to see the New York City commercial real estate market bounce back over the past year, the resulting price increases have prompted many investors and developers to look elsewhere for deals.

Instead of searching for properties to buy in the Big Apple, they are, in many cases, turning to other markets — from prime locations like San Francisco and Los Angeles to secondary markets like Austin, Tex.

“People need to realize that the number of assets truly available for a sales price that makes sense is very few in New York City,” said Daniel Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital, a Manhattan-based real estate investment bank. [more]