As Stuyvesant Town gets ready for foreclosure, a judge has ruled that current owner Tishman Speyer and past owner MetLife must pay back tenants retroactive rent rollbacks. The Rent Stabilization association's counsel was unhappy that the definition of "retroactive" wasn't determined, because "Do the rollbacks go back one year? Four years? Ten years?" more ›

Nearly four years after being sold for $5.4 billion, Stuyvesant Town headed into a foreclosure sale—CityRoom reports that Judge Alvin Hellerstein "issued the long awaited foreclosure order against the owner of the complexes, a partnership of Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, which defaulted on a $3 billion mortgage early this year... the partnership now owes $3.67 billion, according to court records." Tenants are interested in buying the property, as are some investors; one investor, Wilbur Ross, said, "We will bid only if and when we can do so in concert with the tenants. Any proposal that materially disrupts the tenancy and lifestyle there would be inappropriate and impractical. This is not just a place card in a Monopoly game." more ›

Residents of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village will get another half year of rolled back rents. The rents were originally lowered last December after a court ruling that found owner Tishman Speyer raised rents illegally. Now the Post reports that the tenants and owner Tishman Speyer "announced yesterday they'll extend the agreement for another six months because they have yet to come up with the final rent tally." This comes as residents of the huge complex are still exploring ways to buy the property. more ›

Governor Paterson introduced legislation yesterday that would overhaul the state's rent laws in order to "preserve affordable housing stock." The legislation is in response to the Stuy-Town lawsuit Roberts v. Tishman Speyer, in which tenants prevailed but were left uncertain of their legal rent. DHCR Commissioner Brian Lawlor said in a statement, "The legislation Governor Paterson is proposing will protect all rent regulated tenants in New York State for an additional eight years, provide incentives to owners to quickly provide refunds and rent reductions to tenants in apartments that were inappropriately decontrolled and also slow the deregulation of rent stabilized apartments." more ›

Now that Bloomberg won't help Stuy Town residents buy the foreclosed complex, hedge fund Appaloosa Management is taking a stab. The Times reports that the New Jersey based fund, led by David Tepper, filed a legal challenge yesterday against CW Capital Management, the company currently overseeing the Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes on behalf of the lenders. Appaloosa says CW has acted “irrationally and imprudently." more ›

The NY Times reported that though the default is bad for Tishman Speyer, it's not fatal. “This is a big black eye for them,” said John McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute. “But it’s not the end of Tishman. They own a lot of property. It’s a dent, but not the end.” Those who really stand to lose are the investors: Fortress Investment Groups, the Church of England and the nation of Singapore (which could be in the hole for $775 million) just to name a few. more ›

Four years after buying the middle-class housing complex in what was deemed the most expensive deal in real-estate history, the owners of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village are giving it over to their investors. Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Realty bought the 11,227 apartment development in 2006 for $5.4 billion, but since then its value has decreased to a third of that, estimates the Wall Street Journal. Facing bankruptcy, the real-estate giants see no option but to hand the keys to their investors. more ›

After one of the largest ever defaults on an individual property last week, the future of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is looking more confusing than ever. Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village debt holders have demanded payment from Tishman Speyer Properties LP within 10 days, with foreclosure looming on the horizon, says Bloomberg.com. While a restructuring is certainly in order for the housing complexes, Tishman Speyer, tenants, and elected officials all have different ideas about what that means. more ›

A collective cry of "uh-oh" is echoing through Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. That's because owners Tishman Speyer will miss a $16 million loan payment on the East River complexes today, which would put them in "technical default" on their mortgages. The whole confusing financial mess reaches back to last year; then in October, Tishman Speyer was ruled to have improperly charged market rates on previously rent-stabilized apartments while getting tax subsidies, and over Christmas the government refused to sponsor a bail-out. more ›

It's a New Year's miracle! After being unable to rent vacant apartments, Tishman Speyer will be making 100 apartments available on January 4th, at rent-stabilized prices. Apartments will be made available to "current rent stabilized residents of the community, with the remaining apartments being offered to all others on the waiting list," according to Curbed. This comes with Tishman's agreement to roll back rents for six months starting in the new year. The Court of Appeals ruled in October that Tishman Speyer, the development in charge of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes, illegally raised rents of former rent-stabilized apartments while still receiving tax breaks from the city. more ›

The Post reports that Tishman Speyer "failed to get a $1.5 billion Christmas bailout they had hoped to collect from Uncle Sam...to cover a cash shortfall" on Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. In October, the state's highest court ruled that Tishman improperly charged market rates on previously rent-stabilized apartments while getting tax subsidies. The Post adds, "As of last month, the owners had just $6.75 million left in reserves for StuyTown, according to credit rating agency RealPoint. That isn't enough even to cover December's costs, which include more than 6 percent interest on a $3 billion loan." The complex has 11,000 apartments. more ›

The tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are rejoicing after development owner Tishman Speyer agreed to roll back rents for six months starting in the new year. In October, the Court of Appeals ruled that Tishman illegally raised rents of 4,400 former rent-stabilized apartments while still receiving tax breaks from the city. more ›

Yesterday the state's highest court ruled that it was illegal for Tishman Speyer to raise rents at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations. Now landlords are afraid the ruling will impact their ability to flip rent-regulated apartments into luxury units. Ed Kalikow, whose family owns 2,000 apartments in town, tells the Times, "It's terrible for the industry. A lot of people bought property with the thought that they would get the rents up. People made decisions on that. Banks made loans. This decision is another nail in the coffin." There is not a violin on Earth tiny enough to play at that funeral! more ›

In a decision that could have major repercussions for landlords of rent-controlled buildings citywide, the state’s highest court has ruled this morning that owners of the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan improperly charged market-rate rents on thousands of apartments. In what is probably the final deathblow for Tishman Speyer's ownership of Stuy Town, the Court of Appeals ruled that the owners should not have raised rents beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations. more ›

When we last checked in on the state of the sprawling Manhattan apartment complex known as Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, it was at high risk of default on some $4.4 billion in loans. That was the beginning of September, and the prognosis is still negative. At the end of the month, it had $33.7 million left of the $400 million in interest reserves set up to service its debt, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. This means that at its current burn rate of about $16 million per month, the reserve could be depleted before the end of the year. more ›

Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants suing property owner Tishman Speyer had another big day yesterday, when the state's highest court heard arguments in a trial that could set a costly precedent for landlords at rent-regulated buildings citywide. The tenants' lawyers said Tishman's conversion of rent-regulated apartments into market-rate units was illegal because the developer received tax abatement, something the state legislature forbids. But Tishman's lawyers argued that the law doesn't apply to them because the apartments became rent-stabilized 18 years before the developers got the tax breaks. A semantic debate about the word "become" ensued, with Judge Robert S. Smith finally asking, "You might say that I became a grandfather for the third time last month. Isn’t that normal English, even though I was already a grandfather?" (His point, seemingly, was that the law's use of the word "became" shouldn't be so strictly interpreted by Tishman.) But the bigger question yesterday hinged on what impact a verdict for the tenants would have—they're seeking some $200 million in damages from Tishman, whose lawyers warned that landlords could have to repay “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars” to tenants who were overcharged, should the Appeals court uphold the lower court's ruling. more ›

Today's Times exposé on the financial woes gripping the owners of StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village is filled with insider analysis that makes our eyes glaze over, such as, "At Stuyvesant Town, there is a $3 billion first mortgage, or commercial mortgage-backed security, and a $1.4 billion second loan, known as “mezzanine debt” held by SL Green, the government of Singapore and others." But the bottom line is easy enough to grasp; as one analyst puts it, "I’d say their equity has been wiped out, given the decline in apartment values." more ›

Developer Tishman-Speyer was granted a stay that pauses a ruling which found it wrongfully raised rents at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Tishman bought the rent-regulated complex for $5.4 billion, hoping to profit on market-rate rents, but a state appeals courts found the rent increases shouldn't have happened since it was receiving tax breaks associated with rent-regulated properties. The Observer reports, "Rather than immediately re-regulate the 4,000-plus apartments in Stuyvesant Town that have been converted to market rents since 1993, as the appellate court’s decision would require, the stay calls for Tishman to calculate how much money it would owe in back rent to market-rate tenants and put that money in an escrow account." A lawyer for Stuy Town tenants says that Tishman could owe tenants $200 million and the ruling affects many other landlords who got tax breaks for property improvements and then deregulated apartment. more ›

Yesterday, the state appeals court ruled that developer Tishman Speyer "had wrongfully raised rents and deregulated thousands of apartments after receiving special tax breaks," the NY Times reports. more ›

According to Eater, vendors supplying the Cipriani restaurant empire have had trouble getting paid, and the Ciprianis have been withholding rent payments because of a drawn-out rent arbitration with the landlord. The original ten year lease signed in 1998 was for $4 million a year, then a property reappraisal increased the rent to $8.7 million in February 2007, the Daily News reports. Last month the rent was lowered to $6 million, but now the Ciprianis are suing, accusing the property owner of trying to "force Cipriani out of business at the premises and thus out of the premises." more ›

Owners of the Rainbow Room think that the best way to class up the joint is to show the Cipriani family to the door. On the heels of last week's announcement that the Rainbow Grill would close its doors, the (in)famous restaurateur family has now been evicted from their spot on Top of the Rock for failure to pay the last four months' rent. A spokesman for Tishman Speyer, the company that serves as their landlord, told the Times, "The Rainbow Room is one of our city’s great institutions, and we will immediately begin the process of finding another great restaurateur to operate the space in the first-class manner that New Yorkers and visitors deserve.” The Ciprianis, of course, are not just laying down. They recently won an arbitration case to lower what they called "and insanely high" rent imposed by Tishman Speyer from $8.7 to $6 million. The family released a statement yesterday saying, "Unfortunately, we are dealing with an uncompassionate and greedy landlord who has not made any efforts to resolve our differences in a reasonable manner." more ›

With the recession only getting worse, now a guy doesn't even have anywhere to turn to get a $40 bowl of pasta while taking in the best view of Manhattan. The Rainbow Room has announced that while times are tough, it will close its doors on the restaurant portion of the 65th floor landmark, the Rainbow Grill. Operators of the Rainbow Room, the Cipriani family, told WNBC, "We are currently planning on temporarily closing the Rainbow Grill, which will operate as a bar only...due to the current economic crisis in New York and around the world, on top of an ongoing dispute with our landlord.” The Ciprianis applied for landmark status for the Rainbow Room back in August for fears that their landlord Tishman Speyer could try to transform it into office space. A source connected to the Ciprianis recently was quoted saying that Tishman Speyer has been disgusted with the shabby state of the Rainbow Room since the Ciprianis took over. The historic club that sits on "Top of the Rock" above Rockefeller Center turns 75 this year. more ›

The NY Post is reporting that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council "is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake" of the Chrsyler Building. Which would mean the entire Art Deco skyscraper, designed by William Van Alen (who was never paid!), is valued at over $1 billion. more ›

The turmoil at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village continues, as behemoth real estate developer Tishman Speyer Properties, is flushing out rent-stabilized tenants who it believes do not live in Stuy Town-Peter Cooper anymore. more ›

The MTA has called a special board meeting to approve a takeover of the Hudson Yards development project in Manhattan by developer The Related Companies and investment bank Goldman Sachs. The quick switch follows an abrupt departure by real estate development firm Tishman Speyer, that won approval after a tortuously long selection process. An MTA press release quotes Mayor Bloomberg:

"Today's announcement that the MTA will award Related Companies, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, the development rights for the West Side Rail Yards is great news for the City. Despite the setbacks of the last few weeks, we are certain that Related and Goldman will realize this tremendous opportunity to develop what is really the only large parcel of undeveloped space left in Manhattan. The attractiveness of this area for developers stems in part because the City is funding an extension of the #7 line, making this vital new mixed use community of residential, commercial and office space a truly transit oriented development. We will continue to work with the State and MTA and with the developer to help make the Hudson Yards development a reality."

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With the deal to develop the West Side rail yards on the ropes, Senator Chuck Schumer said that Mayor Bloomberg's plan for the West Side is the "goofiest thing I've ever seen." According to the Sun, Schumer was specifically referring to "the Bloomberg administration’s decision to include a mid-block boulevard," claiming that it was sapping funds from the much-needed 7 line extension. more ›

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Mayor Bloomberg tried to rally hopes for a happy ending to the saga of the West Side rail yards by telling reporters, "The plan isn’t dead by any means. Hudson Yards is the most exciting opportunity New York has.” more ›

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