New York real estate veterans from Richard LeFrak to Sheldon Solow were featured on Forbes‘ annual list of the world’s billionaires. In total, 1,426 individuals made the list with a combined net worth of $5.4 trillion.
Richard LeFrak was the highest-ranked New York real estate titan on the list, at number 225 (number 69 Read More
7 West 57th Street Realty Co., a real estate company controlled by Sheldon Solow, filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday against Citibank, Bank of America, Barclays, JPMorgan and a number of other banks for allegedly conspiring to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
The complaint alleges the defendant banks’ conspiracy to manipulate Libor resulted in the seizure of Mr. Solow’s $450 million bond portfolio by Citibank. The portfolio was pledged as collateral for Libor denominated loans, the complaint says, and was comprised largely of high-grade municipal bonds. Subsequently, Solow was obligated to pay a $100 million judgment. Read More
A real estate executive who was formerly one of the top officers in the real estate empire of billionaire owner and developer Sheldon Solow has filed what is likely to be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Mr. Solow for unpaid retirement funds, The Commercial Observer has learned.
Steven Cherniak worked with Mr. Solow for 26 years before abruptly leaving Mr. Solow’s firm, Solow Realty and Development Company, in 2008. In a case filed in U.S. District Court on July 19, Mr. Cherniak alleges Mr. Solow dismissed him without cause and didn’t pay him a previously agreed-upon retirement package. Read More
Developer David Levinson is in talks to invest in and help redevelop 380 Madison Avenue, an 840,000-square-foot Midtown office building sources say.
The property is currently controlled by the mercurial and enigmatic investor and developer Sheldon Solow who has a leasehold on the property. But that interest runs out in 2014 and the owners of the building, a venture led by Deutsche Bank’s real estate investment fund RREEF, want to bring on a partner to overhaul the antiquated tower. Read More
For much of the past decade the only hope for a broker looking to make money off of Downtown office space was to do a deal like 70 Pine Street: Take a lavish 62-story Art Deco headquarters that was once owned by a spectacularly failed financial firm like AIG and turn it into opulent apartments where bankers would rather live than work.
Deals like 70 Pine Street, which instantly wiped off one million square feet from Downtown’s commercial real estate inventory when it was sold for $200 million in 2011, have been propping up statistics for the neighborhood’s office space market for years. Ever since large banks and financial companies started fleeing offices in the financial district, an influx of young families and bankers wanting to live Downtown, rather than just work there, have kept the vacancy rate from tanking even further by reducing the math on the supply end.
Now, say the brokers who have long suffered the horrors of Downtown’s commercial market, those residential conversions are starting to also pay off on the demand side. A flurry of infrastructure and amenities building to keep up with the new residents in the neighborhood is also making the area more enticing for large corporations to move in.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario,” said Mark Shapses, executive managing director at Studley. “Downtown is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” Read More
Officials at Investment Technology Group, a brokerage and market research firm with offices across the globe, knew there was no such thing as a dull moment when it comes to behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing at a Manhattan office tower. Read More
Manhattan hasn’t seen too many $200-per-square-foot commercial rental offerings since the recession brought rates crashing down.
But Sheldon Solow, the enigmatic and private owner of 9 West 57th Street, plans to lease some of his best office space in that prized trophy tower at those sky-high, pre-recession rents. Read More
Deutsche Bank AG will be opening its first office in Downtown Brooklyn after it agreed to take 50,000 square feet at the JPMorgan Chase-owned 4 MetroTech Center, The Commercial Observer has learned. Read More
Billionaire landlord Sheldon Solow has locked up a $625 million loan from Deutsche Bank AG to help refinance a securities-backed debt tied to 9 West 57th Street that was slated to mature in February, sources confirmed.
The loan, which was first reported by Bloomberg.com last week, will be used as “ongoing capital” for 9 West 57th, a person familiar with the matter told The Commercial Observer.
For an emerging—albeit press-shy—wealth management firm like Forty North Capital LLC, snagging a prime block of office space on the 30th floor of a building that features stupefying views of Central Park and an intimidating list of titanic private equity tenants like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners is indeed a bold move.
In August, Forty North signed a 10-year lease to take 17,000 square feet at 9 West 57th Street, a gleaming, 50-story skyscraper owned by real estate titan Sheldon Solow with an address that a business of any shape or size would kill to have on its business card. Read More
Sheldon Solow will have the last laugh after all. In a truly startling swamp, Natixis is ready to cut a deal at 9 West 57th Street, putting its space at 1251 Sixth Avenue back on the market.
Back in the fall, the sometime-troubled French money manager (a Madoff victim and Goldman adversary) wanted to renew at Read More
One of the few upsides to a down real estate economy is the plethora of deals to be had by the savvy investor with money on hand. That is certainly one way to describe the Fisher family, who began developing real estate in the outer-boroughs in 1915 and progressively worked their way in to some Read More
Litigious billionaire landlord Sheldon Solow has returned to work, fired the man just hired to manage his real estate operations, and re-engaged in litigation with his one-time partner, the Fischer real estate family, according to a pretty awesome article just filed by Charles Bagli.
As is Mr. Solow’s wont, his reemergence at the helm Read More
Could Sheldon Solow be turning over a new leaf?
First, the reportedly ailing Mr. Solow, litigious owner of the exemplary 9 West 57th Street, has handed operational control of his company to his son, who, in turn, hired the Pyne Companies’ Jay Fischoff, according to the New York Post.
Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof
