From left: Billy Macklowe, Harry Macklowe, 610 Broadway and 400 Madison
Father-son real estate investors Harry and Billy Macklowe, who famously split, are marketing 90 percent stakes in two Manhattan buildings, the New York Post reported. The pair has approached Steve Kohn, president of Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman, to offer interests in 610 Broadway and 400 Madison Avenue. [more]
New York City real estate developer William Macklowe appeared on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” today (see video) to talk about a new investment fund his eponymous company William Macklowe Company has created with Grove International Partners. The fund, Macklowe said, is a vehicle with the capacity to raise up to $1.5 billion in acquisition capital.
While “there’s a limited supply in the acquisition pipeline,” Macklowe said, his firm is on the lookout for commercial and residential properties exclusively in Manhattan. The company is biding its time, he said, waiting to see how the market settles.
The developer closed on his first building in January since the launch of his firm in 2010. [more]
Once the current period of historically low interest rates comes to an end, the commercial real estate market will likely enter another period of distress as refinancing becomes more expensive for troubled properties, William Macklowe, CEO of William Macklowe Company, said.
During the upcoming presidential election year, he expects President Barack Obama will do what he can to keep rates low, and “that will keep a lot of the impaired or partially impaired assets performing,” Macklowe said, speaking on a panel in Midtown this morning hosted by publisher Bisnow.
But then he forecast that rates will rise, and his firm was planning on that possibility. [more]
The first quarter of 2011 saw a steep decline in investment sales in New York
City compared to the last three months of 2010, but the dollar volume for the
whole year is expected to surge over last year, Robert Knakal, chairman of
commercial brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, said.
He predicted the total volume of investment sales would jump to as much as $22
billion this year from $14.5 billion in 2010.
“We believe the dollar volume will increase by 40 to 50 percent over 2010 levels,”
Knakal said at the firm’s quarterly press briefing at its Midtown headquarters this
morning. [more]
William Macklowe, son of troubled developer Harry, is set to close this week on his first building since the launch of his eponymous real estate company last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Macklowe, who initiated the much talked-about split from his father and is attempting to start fresh with his William Macklowe Company, will acquire 636 Sixth Avenue for $45.2 million in a joint venture with ING Clarion Partners. They paid in cash to seller APF Properties, which bought the 82,000-square-foot office property for just $29 million in 2004. Comments
In a pair of sit-down interviews this week, William “Billy” Macklowe opened up — barely — about his split from his father, Harry’s, Macklowe Properties, what he learned from the collapse of the Macklowe empire and his just-launched venture, the William Macklowe Company.
He was tight-lipped with the Observer, refusing to talk even about cooking because, as he put it, “so much has been written about the past and all that, it’s just not an area that I really wish to comment on.” He contended, though, that he was “not tightly coiled at all,” as the reporter had observed.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Macklowe was more relaxed. He told the publication: “one lesson we’re absolutely going to take away from this is no short-term financing,” when asked about Macklowe Properties’ debt woes and the decision to sell off trophies like the GM Building. He fought back against the notion of being the so-called “poster child” for the real estate bust, nominating other notorious failures like the General Growth Properties bankruptcy and Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village foreclosure for the title.
Still, his peers weren’t as kind. “Billy Macklowe is a guy who woke up on third base and thinks he hit a triple,” one anonymous broker told the Observer. Another said, “he was really mean to people when they were on the top of the world, and unfortunately that’s what people are remembering right now… but at the end of the day, he’s a really talented guy with a high aesthetic.”
[NYO] and [Bloomberg]
William “Billy” Macklowe, the son of real estate titan Harry Macklowe, took a bold step in striking out on his own in the world of New York real estate, but the 42-year-old entrepreneur seemed to tread cautiously in an interview with the New York Times this past weekend, his first since he launched his new venture. Macklowe split from his father’s Macklowe Properties, where he was CEO, earlier this year in the wake of the property empire’s high-profile unraveling and launched William Macklowe Company, which he said would focus on real estate acquisitions, strategic lending and investment. Though he said he’s put in bids on a number of properties, the company has yet to win anything. And while he is nearing a deal on a Manhattan office building, he declined to be more specific, citing the current market as a reason. When asked whether he would have done anything differently, in retrospect, with Macklowe Properties, he said, “I would answer that question by saying that I look forward to moving ahead, and lessons learned will manifest themselves in investment decisions.” As for his father, Macklowe said “he was understanding of what I needed to do” and that “now it’s my turn.” [NYT]
From left: William Macklowe and Harry MackloweAll is not right in the Macklowe house: William Macklowe and his father, Harry Macklowe, have parted ways — in the business world, at least — according to Crain’s. Sources say that the younger Macklowe has split from Macklowe Properties and has inked a lease for a full floor of office space at 126 East 56th Street, where he will launch his own company. [more]
A week after fending off a foreclosure action at 510 Madison Avenue, developers Harry and William Macklowe and real estate investment trust SL Green Realty are facing a lawsuit from another industry heavyweight that wants a piece of a $65 million insurance payment.
O’Connor North American Property Partnership, led by Jeremiah O’Connor, filed suit against Macklowe Properties, alleging breach of contract, and SL Green, alleging breach of contract and unjust enrichment for allegedly failing to share the insurance proceeds stemming from the massive 2009 fire at 510 Madison. The 510 Madison building has been embroiled in controversy for years. It was one of the last commercial buildings in the Macklowe Properties portfolio after the developer was forced to sell off the trophy General Motors building in 2008 help pay off billions of dollars in debt. [more]
William Macklowe, CEO and chairman of Macklowe Properties, has sold his Northwest Harbor home at 10 Koala Lane for $1.95 million. The property, which Macklowe purchased for $1.89 million in 2002, is located in a secluded neighborhood approximately six miles east of Sag Harbor.
