From left: Steve Witkoff, founder of the Witkoff Group, 1107 Broadway, Yitzhak Tessler of Tessler Developments and Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon

Steve Witkoff’s Witkoff Group has completed its purchase of part of the former International Toy Center building from Lehman Brothers Holdings for $191 million, Lehman announced yesterday, following a bankruptcy auction by Eastdil Secured in June. Witkoff is planning a $290 million condominium conversion of the property, at 1107 Broadway, featuring 145 units, in collaboration with a Morgan Stanley real estate fund.

Eastdil Secured brokers Adam Spies and Doug Harmon represented the seller in the deal, and brought the buyer and seller together.

The closing of the 16-story office building follows the sale of 200 Fifth Avenue earlier this month, which was previously the main Toy Center building, for $726 million. … [more]

Manhattan-based Tessler Developments has come to a tentative agreement with Jersey City officials to construct a proton therapy center, along with commercial space and about 1,000 market-rate apartments, on a roughly 2.5-acre parcel near Jersey City Medical Center, the New Jersey Turnpike and a light-rail station, the Wall Street Journal reported. If plans go ahead, construction could start in 2013.

Tessler would pay $15 million for the land, according to the terms of the deal.
The prospective project is just the latest in a large-scale effort to bring proton therapy, a method for tackling brain tumors and lung, pediatric and prostate cancers, to the New York City area. Other proton therapy center plans are moving forward in association with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the NYU Langone Medical Center. … [more]

Yitzhak Tessler and 1107 Broadway

Yitzhak Tessler, the 62-year-old CEO and president of Tessler Developments, spoke with The Real Deal in his first face-to-face interview since he started building in New York more than a decade ago.

The builder of projects such as 240 Park Avenue South decided to speak up, he said, to challenge the reporting surrounding 1107 Broadway, his failed condominium conversion of one of the International Toy Center buildings that became mired in the economic downturn and the Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy. He was frustrated with the assertion that he defaulted on the Lehman Brothers loan, saying the story was more complicated. In the end, each side claimed the other owed it money.

In addition, Tessler answered questions about the Chetrit brothers, with whom he frequently partnered on deals, and his future development plans in Manhattan…. [more]

The former Toy Building at 1107 Broadway and developer Yitzchak Tessler (building photo source: PropertyShark)

L&L Holding has submitted a stalking-horse bid for 1107 Broadway, the vacant, 16-story former Toy Building that’s slated to be sold in a public foreclosure auction later this month. According to the Post, L&L, which owns the 1107 Broadway’s more financially stable sister building, 200 Fifth Avenue, across the street, bid $161.5 million for the property, where Lehman currently holds $343 million in debt. Another buyer would have to offer above $164.5 million in order to win the building, which is owned by a partnership led by Yitzhak Tessler that also includes investor Joseph Chetrit. … [more]

The former Toy Building at 1107 Broadway and developer Yitzchak Tessler (building photo source: PropertyShark)

The estate of Lehman Brothers believes the 200 Fifth Avenue part of the former International Toy Center has already rebounded enough to be worth unloading, but its vacant sister building at 1107 Broadway is a different story entirely. According to the Post, the bank’s scheduled June 6 foreclosure auction of $137 million in mezzanine debt at the 16-story property doesn’t mean it will breathe new life any time soon. “The foreclosure is really to pressure the owners to make a comprehensive deal,” one source explained. “Lehman has to put the debt on the market, but it isn’t something you’d likely buy because then you’d still have to get control of the senior loan,” another said. … [more]