Companies that paid $5.4B for 2 NYC housing complexes say they’ll turn them over to creditors
By APMonday, January 25, 2010
Owners: $5.4B NY housing complexes go to creditors
NEW YORK — The financially troubled owners of two massive apartment complexes that sold for a record $5.4 billion a few years ago said Monday they’re turning them over to their creditors.
The joint venture ownership led by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty couldn’t make a $16 million loan payment earlier this month for the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartments in Manhattan.
Over the last few days it became clear the only viable alternative to bankruptcy would be to transfer to lenders control and operation of the 110 buildings and 11,000 apartments overlooking the East River, partnership spokesman Bud Perrone said.
“We make this decision as we feel a battle over the property or a contested bankruptcy proceeding is not in the long-term interest of the property, its residents, our partnership or the city,” Perrone said in an e-mailed statement.
It hadn’t been determined when the ownership transfer would take place and who specifically the new owners would be, he said.
The group bought the complexes, which have about 25,000 tenants, in 2006 in the nation’s largest residential real estate deal. Since then, the city’s housing market has cooled considerably.
The partnership had been trying to restructure its debt.
