- Blackstone to Buy Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town for $5.3 Billion “Blackstone Group LP is leading a deal to buy New York’s Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, a transaction that would put Manhattan’s biggest apartment complex in the hands of the world’s largest private equity firm and maintain some affordable housing at the property. Blackstone, working with Canada’s Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc., will acquire the 80-acre (32-hectare) enclave for about $5.3 billion, the company and city officials said Tuesday.” (Bloomberg)
- Worrisome Parallels Between Stuyvesant’s Two Sales “In 2006, the massive Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village housing complex was worth $5.4 billion—or at least that's what Tishman Speyer thought when it beat out several other real estate companies to buy it from MetLife. In 2010, after Tishman Speyer abandoned the project to foreclosure, experts estimated the value at less than $2 billion. The most important question is whether Blackstone's deal is, as Yogi would have said, déjà vu all over again.” (Crain’s New York Business)
- JPMorgan Is Said To Be Near Deal to Spin Off Private Equity Unit “JPMorgan Chase is close to completing a deal to spin off a large private equity unit that has operated within the bank, a person briefed on the deal said on Tuesday. The deal would push Highbridge Capital Management’s $22 billion private equity portfolio outside JPMorgan, though the bank would keep a minority stake, the person said.” (New York Times)
- Prudential Real Estate Pro Sees Value in REITs “Recently I caught up with Marc Halle, managing director at Prudential Real Estate Investors and head of Global Real Estate Securities (or GRES). He is the chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager for all GRES funds and investments as well as a member of the Global Management and Investment Committees, and the Global Product Committee.” (Forbes)
- Tech Firms Spy New Bay Area Frontier: Oakland “For much of the technology boom, Oakland’s office market has been curiously sluggish, even as rents and occupancies in nearby San Francisco rocketed. Finally, the bounty of the tech sector is spilling over across the bay. Uber Technologies Inc. late last month announced it was buying a 330,000 square foot former department store in downtown Oakland for $124 million.” (Wall Street Journal)
- Ceruzzi, SMI USA Revealed as Buyers of $453M Lipstick Building Ground Lease “Ceruzzi Properties and Shanghai Municipal Investment USA are the buyers of the $453 million ground lease at the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue, Commercial Observer has learned. According to a source with knowledge of the deal, the contract was signed last week and the lease is for 67 years. Ceruzzi’s Lou Ceruzzi confirmed the contract signing and noted that they hope to close the deal in mid-December.” (Commercial Observer)
- The Fed Is Right to Go Slow on Interest Rates “Life isn’t easy for the Fed right now. When traders put real money on the line, they say we’re going to undershoot the Fed’s 2% inflation target significantly — for the next 10 years — yet Wall Street rhetoric says the Fed needs to raise rates. The FOMC is basically accountable to this schizophrenic set of demands, as the regional banks that select many of the members are very accountable to the bankers who make these opposing arguments.” (MarketWatch)
- Even the Cheapest Homes Are Too Expensive for Millennials “Buying a home should be getting easier for millennials amid sustained gains in U.S. hiring. Instead, increased demand for a scarce supply of starter homes is pushing prices beyond their grasp. Prices for the least expensive previously owned homes — properties at 75 percent or less of the median — were up 10.7 percent in August from a year earlier and now represent the only one of four price tiers to surpass the peak reached during the housing bubble.” (Bloomberg)
- Sale of Hudson River Park Air Rights to Spawn Luxury Apartments, Pier 40 Repairs “City officials and developers are expected Wednesday to announce a proposal to sell $100 million worth of unused development rights at Hudson River Park to a team of developers keen on constructing five apartment buildings between Clarkson and Charlton streets, across the West Side Highway from the 15-acre Pier 40, according to a report in The New York Times.” (Crain’s New York Business)
- Callison, RTKL Become One “Two of the world’s most influential design firms Callison and RTKL have joined forces and given birth to CallisonRTKL. The two companies’ combined strengths will allow the firm to better respond to market demands and client goals. Both Callison and RTKL were earlier acquired by the Netherlands-based Arcadis, a global design and consultancy for natural and build assets.” (Commercial Property Executive)
0 comments
Hide comments