Savoy Park
The Savoy Park Group has hit a new hurdle in its effort to transform a rent-regulated apartment complex into market-rate residences. Crain’s reported that the total valuation of the group’s 1,802-unit Harlem apartment complex fell 49 percent to $75.5 million in less than a year, citing Trepp data. [more]
344 Fort Washington Ave. (credit: PropertyShark)
A New York state Supreme Court judge has appointed a receiver to oversee a Washington Heights rental building, marking the third such appointment in recent months in the distressed portfolio owned by Vantage Properties and investment partner Area Property Partners. Justice Anil Singh named Paul Victor, a former Bronx Supreme Court judge, as a receiver to oversee the 48-unit walk-up rental property at 344 Fort Washington Avenue. [more]
From left: Neil Rubler of Vantage, 90 Ellwood Street and 566 West 190th Street (credit: PropertyShark)
Lone Star Funds yesterday asked a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to appoint Newmark Knight Frank President James Kuhn as a receiver over a multi-family building portfolio in a second foreclosure case involving Vantage Properties.
Dallas-based Lone Star, after acquiring the loans from Anglo Irish Bank, filed a lawsuit March 6 to foreclose on the portfolio, which includes 473 units in 10 low-rise apartment buildings in Washington Heights, Harlem and other neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan. [more]
From left: James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, 2 Pinehurst Ave., 12 Pinehurst Ave., 4101 Broadway and 4117 Broadway
Vantage Properties and New Jersey-based Normandy Real Estate are facing a $37 million foreclosure suit from Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, for allegedly defaulting on a portfolio of four apartment buildings in upper Manhattan.
The loans were backed by rental buildings at 2 Pinehurst Avenue, 12 Pinehurst Avenue, 4101 Broadway and 4117 Broadway, that the developers originally acquired in 2007. Anglo Irish Bank, one of the largest and most active real estate lenders in Europe during the boom, made a $37 million loan to the developers and amended the loan in 2009, adding personal guarantees by top executives. [more]
Shop operators and officials from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance have been working with Vantage Properties to hammer out a deal to keep a multi-use bookstore at 4157 Broadway, DNAinfo reported.
Patrons of the Word Up store, which has been operating rent free at the Vantage building since June on a month-to-month contract, gathered in the space this past Saturday to celebrate the six-month milestone and to raise money for the store’s first month of rent, should the Vantage contract work out.
Word Up even allowed attendees to purchase a share in the business for $20; it’s hoping to run the store according to a “Community Supported Bookshop” program, where patrons receive special benefits for contributing monthly to the store. [more]
Major residential landlord Vantage Properties is turning over most of its ownership position in nearly 80 heavily rent-regulated apartment buildings in Queens to joint venture partner Area Property Partners, sources familiar with the deal said.
Area Property, led by chairman William Mack, will take control of the apartment buildings from Vantage, headed by CEO Neil Rubler, by the end of December, and transfer management to two well-known firms, the sources said. However Vantage would retain some ownership stake, but it was not clear what it would be, another source said.
Manhattan-based Cooper Square Realty and Forest Hills-based Bronstein Properties, will manage the buildings once the change happens, several sources said. [more]
Aside from some sushi and a few much-deserved drinks, it was almost exclusively business last night at the Young Jewish Professionals’ real estate summit, where eager young brokers and other real estate pros gathered to hear New York’s top property dogs talk about the reliably inconsistent market (see photos above).
Vantage Properties CEO Neil Rubler, Extell Development President Gary Barnett, Jamestown Properties President Matt Bronfman and Angelo Gordon & Co.’s Adam Schwartz sat on the panel, fielding questions from the evening’s moderator Bruce Cybul, a partner at the law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel.
It all turned strangely philosophical at points, as the team of property moguls doled out advice to young pups in the audience trying to make it in the business. “When the going gets good,” Barnett exclaimed, “get going. When the going gets very good, get out!” Others, such as Rubler, pointed to the importance of surrounding oneself with the right kinds of people. – Katherine Clarke [more]
The global private real estate firm Harbor Group International partnered with Great Neck, L.I.-based Jadam Equities to take control of a four-building, rent-regulated portfolio in Hamilton Heights from owners Vantage Properties and equity partner Area Property Partners.
Harbor Group International, based in Norfolk, Va. and led by Chairman and CEO Jordan Slone, won control after buying the mezzanine loan secured by an ownership interest in the 214-unit portfolio and holding a nonjudicial foreclosure. Vantage, run by President and CEO Neil Rubler, and the William Mack-led Area bought the four-building Esquire Portfolio in 2007 for $31 million.
It was Harbor Group’s first acquisition of a multi-family building in Manhattan, even as it owns about 9.8 million in commercial property and approximately 20,000 apartment units internationally. The company owns an interest in 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan and 1412 Broadway in Midtown. [more]
Queens-based Vantage Properties has closed on its acquisition of six multi-family properties that comprise AIG’s Central New Jersey multi-family portfolio, for $241.5 million, the company announced today. Investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. acted as an equity partner in the transaction, which involved 2,200 units in Plainsboro, Neptune, Long Branch, Matawan and South River. The purchase was previously reported, but with today’s announcement comes news that Vantage immediately flipped three of those buildings and will launch a new subsidiary as part of the transaction. — Adam Fusfeld [more]
From the May issue: The embattled insurance giant American International Group has sold over 2,000 residential units for $245 million in New Jersey in one of the largest apartment sales in the metro area, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The buyers — New York-based investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. and developer Vantage Properties — have signed a contract for the Pheasant Hollow apartment complex in Plainsboro, N.J., near Princeton.
The sale, which was brokered by commercial real estate firm HFF, is expected to be the first in a series for the insurance company. The firm is selling a portfolio of over 7,000 apartments that it brought from developer Kushner Companies in 2007.
According to real estate data firm Reis Inc., Central New Jersey’s vacancy rate fell to 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter, making it the seventh-lowest rate of the 82 metro markets that Reis tracks, the Journal reported. — Compiled by Omari Allen. Click here to read more. [more]
