Cayman Island-based investor sues over Stuy Town sale

Cobalt claims CWCapital owes it money

Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village
Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village

No pain, no gain. Yet another investor is suing CWCapital, trying to get a share of the profits from the $5.3 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village in 2015.

A Cayman Island-based entity called Cobalt filed a lawsuit against the special servicer last week, arguing that as the property’s key bondholder it is owed a share of CWCapital’s $600 million windfall from the property’s sale to the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge, Crain’s reported.

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CWCapital, a Fortress Investment Group subsidiary, took control of the East Village housing complex on behalf of CMBS bondholders in 2010 after its owner Tishman Speyer defaulted on its loans. Cobalt claims it owned $3.4 billion in bonds backed by the housing complex, Crain’s reported. It also claims that CWCapital made a net $1 billion in fees and default interest in five years.

It’s not clear who the investors behind Cobalt, a special-purpose entity, are.

Last year, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management and Winthrop Realty Trust filed a $500 million lawsuit against CWCapital, alleging they were cheated out of their profit through the property’s sale.  [Crain’s]Konrad Putzier