Ritz-Carlton hotel at 50 Central Park South
Westbrook Partners purchased a stake in the Ritz-Carlton hotel at 50 Central Park South, the International Business Times first reported. Seller Millennium Partners recouped $105 million for the 256-room hotel it first purchased for $88.8 million in 2006 from Macklowe Properties. Millennium still owns the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park City. [more]
P. Diddy is suing the landlord at his flagship clothing store, Sean John, at 475 Fifth Avenue for $2.5 million (see suit document via TMZ after the jump). The suit alleges the landlord, 475 Fifth 09 LLC, never removed scaffolding which was erected in August 2006, leaving customers unable to view the storefront and costing P. Diddy $5 million in lost revenues at the once-bustling store. Christian Casey, the company which runs P. Diddy’s clothing line, said revenues at the flagship store have been cut in half because of the scaffolding and want the lease rescinded for an alleged breach of contract. Barclays Capital took back the building from developers Westbrook Partners and Joseph Moinian earlier this year. [TMZ] and [Courthouse News Service]
[more]
From the October issue: New York City is at a peculiar crossroads. For months, investors have
marshaled unprecedented amounts of capital, salivating at the prospect
of snapping up distressed properties. “We’re fortunate this cycle to
have the most dry powder in our
history,” Blackstone Group president Tony James said last month at the
Barclays Capital Global Financial Services Conference, which was held
in Manhattan. The firm has about $28 billion in unspent capital, he
said. About $12 billion of that is earmarked for real estate. “We’re
just beginning what will be the best period in decades for private
investing,” he said. Dan Fasulo, a managing director at Real Capital
Analytics, estimated
that $50 billion has been raised and is ready to be deployed into
distressed real estate. Paradoxically, investors have found very little
worth buying so far, in large part because banks continue to hold
troubled loans on their books, hoping conditions will improve. [more]
Barclays Capital is hoping to sell 475 Fifth Avenue, which it took back from developers Westbrook Partners and Joseph Moinian earlier this year. Moinian and Westbrook closed on the building for $160 million in 2007. Barclays is now asking $105 million for the property, sources told the New York Observer. That’s about $381 per square foot for the 275,284-square-foot property, which is largely empty, the sources said.
Developer Kent Swig is racing to complete a deal to sell the senior
mezzanine debt at the Sheffield57 condominium to a team led by Fortress
Investment Group, amid a blockbuster derivative lawsuit by his fellow
investors that could affect a final agreement. Under the proposed deal, Guggenheim Structured Real Estate would sell
its debt in the building, which includes a senior mezzanine loan of $76
million, and a junior mortgage loan of about $2 million, sources said. The sources added that Swig and Guggenheim were looking to sell the debt
at 90 cents on the dollar, while most offers were coming in at 60 to 70
cents. The buyers would then foreclose on the note, take over the property,
and pour millions of dollars into the building to complete construction
and cover delinquent payments owed to numerous contractors. “The note’s in default,” said an executive familiar with the
negotiations, “but Guggenheim doesn’t have the [additional] money to
put into the deal that the property needs.” [more]
