From left: Crowne Plaza JFK, which owes nearly $950,000 in overdue taxes and the Holiday Inn JFK, which owes more than $850,000
Tax debtors beware: New York State is calling you out.
Last Friday, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance went live on its Web site with lists of the top 250 individual and corporate tax debtors in the state.
The individual debtors range from Onandaga County resident Bradley Cooke, who owes $381,509, to Irving Bilzinsky, the former Scores strip clubs owner from Brooklyn who topped out the list with more than $15 million outstanding taxes from between 2007 and 2009. Among businesses, Gui Hong Chen, of Queens, took the top spot with more than $19 million in unpaid corporate taxes.
This week, The Real Deal combed through the newly-public documents to find the worst offenders in New York City real estate.
They include luxury broker Agnes Nolan and her late husband, who owe more than $850,000 in personal income taxes, a subsidiary of real estate investment firm W.P. Carey, which has a warrant out for roughly $464,000, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, which owes upwards of $300,000 (see the full list after the jump).
Perhaps the highest-profile individuals listed were Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff (No. 69, with $984,281 in sales taxes) and celebrity fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz (No. 83, with $503,740 in personal income taxes outstanding). Earlier this week, Leibovitz narrowly avoided emergency sales of her four New York homes — three Greenwich Village brownstones and part of the Astor family’s estate in Rhinebeck, N.Y. — when a Los Angeles private equity firm specializing in distressed real estate agreed to take on her millions of dollars in debt.
SL Green Realty is angling to buy back as much as $250 million by issuing bonds in an effort to consolidate its assets. The company hopes to raise capital through a tender offer, set to expire April 7 this year, through which it will issue debt bonds, issued by partner company SL Green Operating Partnership. “This is prudent and further strengthens SL Green’s liquidity position by effectively extending maturities,” Michael Knott, an analyst with Green Street Advisors, told Crain’s. “While the company’s overall leverage remains on the high side relative to some key peers, that is not impacting SL Green’s ability to run its business and make investments.” TRD
The U.S. hotel industry posted increased occupancy and revenue per available room numbers for the week ending March 6, according to data from Smith Travel Research, a rare bright spot in what has been a shaky couple of years for the hospitality sector. The 0.9 percent revenue per available room, or revpar, increase, to $52.75, was the third in 18 months and the first that wasn’t holiday-related. Luxury hotels reported the largest increase in revpar, up 10.2 percent to $160.19. Occupancy was up overall to 54.9 percent from 50.9 percent one week earlier, while the average daily rate dropped 3 percent to $96.05. Luxury hotels also were most-improved in terms of occupancy, up 16.5 percent to 66.4 percent. The Miami-Hialeah market was the most-improved region with average daily rates up 10.1 percent to $189.37. “The growth in year-over-year revpar is significant because the occupancies are clearly showing an improvement and the decline in rates is finally starting to slow,” said Randy Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smith Travel Research. “While the size of the revpar increase is not significant, it is a clear sign that the outlook for the industry is improving.” TRD
1. Protestors descend on Barclays Center groundbreaking [Post] 2. Expert answers questions on Gowanus Canal conditions [NYT] 3. Residents riled over possible FDNY closures[SI Advance] 4. Despite rumors, Starbucks not taking on Williamsburg location [Post] 5. Fort Greene’s Ingersoll and Walt Whitman Houses remain approximately 25 percent vacant [NYT] 6. Brooklyn Bridge Park to stay open till 1 a.m. [NYDN] 7. Queens Community Board 2 concerned about P.S. 1 museum renovation plans [Your Nabe] 8. City’s $25 million Yankee Stadium demolition nearing completion [NYT] 9. Nets arena poised to absorb some of Madison Square Gardens’ events [Post] 10.East River Plaza stores not living up to promise to hire locals as employees [DNA info] 11. More unmarried couples buying up real estate [Post] 12. Upper Brookville home welcomes guests with models and Maseratis[Newsday] 13. Manhattan DA raids Lehr Construction office [Gothamist] 14. More troubled commercial loan holders walking away [WSJ via Realtor Mag]
Fred Harris, vice president at AvalonBay Communities, which is constructing its first Brooklyn project, a 631-unit tower on Gold Street in Fort Greene.
From the March issue:A handful of major real estate management and development firms that have long avoided Brooklyn — even as housing prices in the borough shot up and brokerages rushed in — are finally venturing across the river.
The reasons are twofold. First, new high-rise, high-end construction in Brooklyn fits their business model. And second, values of these new Brooklyn buildings appear to have tumbled further and faster than their Manhattan counterparts, according to brokers and developers. “Developers are looking for opportunities, 100 percent,” said David Maundrell, a Dumbo resident and the president of aptsandlofts.com, a brokerage with a Brooklyn focus. “But they are willing to do that because there is a viable market here. It’s become a destination as opposed to an afterthought for Manhattanites who want a cheaper place.”
Jamestown Properties is one of the developers that recently upped its bet on the borough. In early 2007, the firm had a 60 percent equity stake in be@Schermerhorn, a troubled condo in Downtown Brooklyn, which was developed by SDS Procida and saw construction and sales suspended last year. But in December, Jamestown bought the balance of the mortgage from a consortium of banks. The consortium had originally lent $100 million to SDS Procida.
State Attorney General Cuomo has told the developers of the financially-troubled One Madison Park condo to offer refunds to any buyers that have not closed on their apartments
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, which regulates the sale of condominiums in New York, has told the developers of the financially-troubled One Madison Park condominium to offer refunds to any buyers that have not closed on their apartments, The Real Deal has learned. Cuomo’s office forced the rescission offers after senior lender Istar Financial filed last month to foreclose on developers Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs for allegedly defaulting on five months of interest payments, pledging apartments without the bank’s permission and allowing the building loan to fall out of balance by $63.6 million, according to court documents and legal sources. Such a move would require the developers to refund deposits on more than 40 percent of the 69-unit tower at 23 East 22nd Street, as half of the units are under contract and a dozen of those contracts have closed, according to Department of Finance records.
“[The AG stated its] position to the sponsor that it should offer rescission to those in contract,” said a NYS regulatory source familiar with the case.
From left: Samuel Himmelstein by day, and Samuel Himmelstein by night; the Love Handles rock out (see Himmselstein in tie dye, at far left)
Fifty-eight-year-old real estate attorney Samuel Himmelstein is getting ready to rock next Friday at Lafayette Grill & Bar at 54 Franklin Street, as his band, the Love Handles, heads back to the stage after a six-month hiatus. Himmelstein, a partner at real estate litigation firm Himmelstein McConnell Gribben Donoghue & Joseph, is part of a six-person band including his old college buddy, tenant advocate attorney Marty Silberman of Silberman Law Firm, 58, who plays the drums. Himmelstein, who plays keyboard, sings lead on a few songs as well as harmony and back-up vocals, and Silberman had talked about forming a band for years before finally doing so in 2001. The band plays music from the 1960s through early 1980s, including hits from Elvis Costello and the Grateful Dead. The group has played at the Cutting Room and the Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor, in Park Slope and for the last three years has been the post-race entertainment at the Komen Race for the Cure in Central Park (see video below). TRD
Moody’s Economy.com predicts a 20-year wait for South Florida’s housing market to fully recover
From the South Florida Web site: The South Florida residential real estate market will not rebound to
previous highs until 2030, according to a Moody’s Economy.com
prediction. The forecast made something of a stir when it appeared deep
in an article on community development districts in Business Week
Monday (see chart on the forecast after the jump). While Moody’s Economy.com was under a contractual obligation not to
release the specific data it had supplied to Bloomberg, it provided The
Real Deal with data that supported a reasonably similar forecast — a
peak to trough price trajectory that tells of a long road ahead for
Florida real estate.
The Real Deal is looking for your feedback on market-related issues. To read an item about the AEG fallout, click here. To check out a rundown of the former competitors, click here. Please comment below.If you have questions you’d like posted, please e-mail news@therealdeal.com.
Residents at a Tribeca condo are hoping to give one unit owner and his tenant the boot, claiming that the pair threw raucous parties in their home featuring a stripper pole and fire wielders. What’s worse, they claim, is that unit owner James McGowan, who operates both South Brooklyn Pizza and PJ Hanley’s bar in Carroll Gardens, allegedly hasn’t paid condo fees and mortgage payments months and that he transferred the property deed to his underage daughter to avoid the possibility of liability landing on him. In this New York Post video above, partygoers who are allegedly at that man’s apartment use torches to conduct so-called “fire massages.”
Riverton Houses, Steven Sinatra (top) of Greenberg Traurig, and Howard Comet (bottom) of Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Update (1:50 p.m.): David Bistricer’s Morgan Capital was the other bidder. Comments regarding and from Bistricer added.
Special servicer CWCapital Asset Management won the bidding this
morning to take title to the Riverton Houses in Harlem at a price of
$125 million following a short bidding war with an attorney
representing a company controlled by real estate investor David Bistricer, called Morgan Capital. About 75 people including brokers, potential buyers and residents of
the 12, 13-story apartment buildings attended the brief auction in the rotunda of the State Supreme Court building at 60 Centre Street. The property has a loan with a judgment valued at $240.6 million that is held in a
commercial mortgaged-backed security. CWCapital is the special servicer
for the loan.
The Aqueduct Entertainment Group won’t be running slots in Ozone Park anytime soon. State officials have barred the group from receiving its gaming license, following weeks of corruption rumors surrounding Governor David Paterson’s selection of the group for the racetrack and gambling development contract. After the decision came down, Paterson’s office released a statement saying it would back down from its decision. “The Division of the Lottery has concluded that it cannot issue a gaming license to Aqueduct Entertainment Group. Therefore, the State has officially withdrawn its support for AEG to develop and operate a video lottery terminal facility at Aqueduct Race Track,” Paterson’s office said.
An interior rendering of the Barclays Center and Bruce Ratner
Investors, city officials and developer Bruce Ratner, CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, came together today to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Barclays Center at the Atlantic Yards development. The 18,000-seat arena, which will serve as the home of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, is expected to open in 2010. At the ceremony, Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the Barclays Center as “the first piece of what will be one of the largest private investments and job generators in Brooklyn’s history.” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Governor David Paterson were equally effusive in their praise, describing the development as “a dream” and “a boon to Brooklyn,” respectively. The arena, which is being designed by the Ellerbe Becket and ShoP Architects firms, is also expected to host upwards of 200 events annually, including concerts and non-NBA basketball games. Clarification: these comments were released in advance of the ceremony and were the planned statements of the individuals quoted.TRD
From left: Chris Ward of the PA, Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties, Michael Bloomberg and the WTC site
Criticism levied against the construction pace at the World Trade Center is too robust, Chris Ward, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, told The Real Deal this morning after a New York Building Congress breakfast forum. When asked about the disappointment city officials, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, have expressed over the World Trade Center progress, Ward said it was not a national embarrassment, as Lou Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association, had said at this week’s labor rally. “I would hate to think that we continue to beat ourselves up when we don’t have to. [The site] will be the foundation for [developer] Larry Silverstein to build [on],” Ward said. Although Ward said he wouldn’t comment on the ongoing fiscal negotiations at the World Trade Center between the Port Authority and Silverstein, he said at the forum that caution is crucial when moving forward with the development plans, particularly given the current economic landscape.
Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is scheduled to expire.
Fashion mogul Elie Tahari is reportedly looking to unload two residential properties in the Hamptons, as part of a massive sell off of properties, according to the Post. The two homes are a $6.8 million Amagansett property and a yet-to-be-priced Sagaponack home that he purchased for $13.5 million, the first of which, a five-bedroom pad, was purchased in his wife, Rory’s, name. The news comes on the heels of widespread speculation that the couple is considering ending its 10-year marriage.
There could be more trouble brewing for the Jean Nouvel-designed MoMA tower at 53 West 53rd Street. Word has gotten out that the West 54-55th Street Block Association has filed an official petition to the New York State Supreme Court, citing environmental violations and the improper transfer of development rights, according to Curbed. Although it’s not yet clear when the court might make a decision on the petition, the document could put a temporary wrench in the works for the development.
From the March issue: Down market? What down market? In the wake of one of the biggest housing declines since the Great Depression, some New Yorkers saw the values of their homes rise last year — on the city’s tax records.
Townhouse prices in Manhattan were down 32 percent in 2009 from 2008, according to data from Miller Samuel. And yet the city’s Department of Finance hiked the market values of some townhomes in Upper Manhattan by as much as 20 percent. (Co-ops, as a class, were up 1.8 percent on average.)
In the eyes of the city Department of Finance, the market value on Meghan Beard’s two-family Harlem townhouse increased from $1.15 million to $1.32 million in the last year, which will apply to the tax year beginning on July 1. Alan Wang’s one-family, meanwhile, rose from $1.05 million to $1.2 million. [more]
Laurence Gluck was within his rights when he began charging market-rate rents at Independence Plaza North, the state’s housing agency has determined. Gluck, who took the 1,339-unit building at 80 North Moore Street in Tribeca out of the state’s Mitchell-Lama housing program after purchasing the property in 2004, began destabilizing rents gradually in a deal with tenants and the city, but by now, now one-bedrooms rent there for as much as $3,800 per month. A tenant-led case at I.P.N., charging that Gluck should not have been allowed to deregulate rents because he was still receiving J-51 tax abatements at the time, has been brewing at I.P.N. since 2005. But while the case was reminiscent of the one lost by Tishman Speyer last year at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, in I.P.N.’s case, the city mistakenly continued to grant Gluck tax breaks for two years after he removed the building from the Mitchell-Lama program. After he stopped receiving the abatement, Gluck repaid roughly $17,000. In April, Judge Marcy Friedman of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan asked the state’s housing agency, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, to issue an opinion on the case. Friedman can now accept or reject the agency’s decision.
Staten Island saw a 22 percent drop off in foreclosure filings last month compared to a month earlier, according to national real estate foreclosure tracking company RealtyTrac’s monthly foreclosure market report released today (see report after the jump). But its 184 filings — one in every 974 households — represented a 5.75 percent increase over February 2009 and that rate gave it a second-place ranking among all New York counties.
Overall, the city saw 1,401 foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — last month, down 23 percent from January and 5.5 percent from a year ago.
Still, foreclosures in the city’s hardest-hit boroughs — Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn — remain at remarkably high levels, with unemployment showing few signs of abating and more risky loans still yet to mature.
“The big foreclosure earthquake that we felt was really in
2007, 2008, but we’re continuing to see aftershocks of that… waves of
foreclosures continuing to hit,” said Daren Blomquist, a spokesperson for RealtyTrac.
Related Companies is close to signing a contract to manage sales and leasing at Muss Development’s new 3.3 million-square-foot Sky View Parc complex in Flushing, Queens, Crain’s reported. The development will set six residential towers and a rooftop park atop a three-story, 800,000-square-foot shopping center. The first three towers are almost complete, but Muss’ financial partner, private equity firm Onex, is said to be anxious about slow sales in the buildings and wanted a change. In a press release last year, Muss said 70 percent of the 448 condo units in the first building were sold, while 30 percent were sold in the second. Sales had not yet started in the third tower at the time. Retail space in the shopping center below had been 70 percent leased, with tenants including BJ’s Wholesale Club and Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar. Onex invested $66 million in the Sky View Parc project, and both Muss and Onex approached Related as part of a plan to get things back on track, sources said.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.
1. Former Cendant owner Henry Silverman on Hamptons, NYC real estate buying spree [Post, 5th item] 2.Prudential to launch collaborative virtual tours [Inman News] 3. $19.5M townhouse at 26 West 76th Street in contract [Post, 3rd item] 4. Inside “Real Housewife” Ramona Singer’s UES condo [Post] 5.City-run Bronx apartment buildings more hazardous than meets the eye [NYDN]
6. Homes of the world’s richest people, in pictures [Forbes] 7. Screenwriter Paul Schrader buys $1.9M condo at Modern23 [Post, 2nd item] 8.ZipRealty loses $2.1M in fourth quarter [Inman News]
9.Ernst & Young: Global REIT values to grow this year [Reuters] 10.Commercial property owners increasingly walking away from mortgages [WSJ]
Manhattan residential sales activity picked up for the Corcoran Group in February, according to market data from the residential brokerage. Condominium unit sales
closed by the company increased 9 percent month-over-month, according to the
company’s monthly market snapshot, while co-op sales shot up 23 percent
during that same time period. But while co-op sales prices were able to hold
steady with an approximately 5 percent increase between January and
February, condo prices were 4 percent lower in February 2010 than they were
in the previous month. TRD
