Manhattan Apartment Real Estate Deal Going Bust?

27 October 2009 - 12:00pm

A $5.4 billion deal to purchase two massive Manhattan apartment complexes and convert them to high-end rentals appears to be floundering.

The Manhattan apartment complexes known as Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were purchased in 2006 for $5.4 billion, as part of a scheme to transform them from middle-class housing to luxury units. However,

"Tenants fought back, conversions happened much slower than expected and a state court ruled Thursday that about $200 million in the company's new rent increases were improper. Real estate analysts say the ownership group is now just two to three months away from a likely default on the $3 billion mortgage it used, along with a $1.4 billion secondary loan, to buy the property. Foreclosure looms as a strong possibility."

Source: Huffington Post, October 26, 2009
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From the economic stimulus package to the projects it funded, the nation and the rest of the world seemed to spend all of 2009 in recession-reaction mode. And while many of the problems the recession has brought are not solved yet, 2009 was a year of adaptation, fresh ideas and some bad old habits.