Louise Sunshine and the W Downtown New York

The sluggish sales pace has picked up at the condominium units in Joseph Moinian’s W New York Downtown hotel thanks to a new marketing focus on fully-furnished units led by Louise Sunshine, according to the  Wall Street Journal.

Interest in the building was high when a sales effort was launched before it was built in 2007, but the  prospective buyers vanished when the recession hit. When the 57-story building’s 22 lowest floors opened as a 217-room hotel in 2010 the building, at 123 Washington Street, had its first sale. By the fall of 2011, though, just 15 of the 223 for-sale units had closed, in part because of a controversial Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act lawsuit. [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. [more]

From the June issue: Joseph Moinian founded the successful ladies’ apparel company Billy Jack for Her before venturing into real estate in 1982. Today, the Moinian Group operates a 20 million-square-foot portfolio of assets across the U.S., valued at more than $8 billion. The firm’s holdings include the newly opened W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences and a stake in Chicago’s Sears Tower. At the 768,500-square-foot office tower 3 Columbus Circle, Moinian is close to completing a $175 million redevelopment, after a $138 million equity investment from SL Green Realty Corp. helped fend off an attempted takeover by the Related Companies. Click here to read the interview.

The W Downtown Hotel & Residences at 123 Washington Street is facing a $1.6 million lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court from a next-door condominium that the new hotel is located dangerously close to the older building’s chimney and ventilation systems. The Moinian Group, which developed the W, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which manages the property, were named in the lawsuit filed Nov. 9 by 120 Greenwich Place. [more]

A real estate private equity firm has purchased developer Joseph Moinian’s defaulted debt tied to the W Downtown Hotel & Residences, according to Bloomberg News. The purchaser, Iron Point Titan Ventures, purchased the debt last week, according to a source close to the deal, although the sale has not yet been announced publicly. Moinian defaulted on the $25 million mezzanine loan last October. [Bloomberg]

[more]