Tishman Speyer Properties LP

Here's the latest article to question the wisdom of Tishman Speyer forking over a record-setting $5.4 billion for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in 2006. And this article features something more than mere speculation -- actual numbers!

According to Bloomberg, when Standard & Poor's "downgraded ratings on 22 classes of commercial mortgage-backed securities related to the properties," the ratings agency explained that, "Stuyvesant Town is now worth 10 percent less than what Tishman and BlackRock paid two years ago."

S&P downgraded the securities because Tishman Speyer hasn't been able to deregulate as many of the complex's 11,200 units as quickly as originally predicted:  read more »

A new report speculates that Tishman Speyer's record-setting, $5.4 billion purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in 2006 may be in trouble.

Barron's is reporting that the purchase is the commercial mortgage market's "most prominent trouble spot" among Manhattan deals, according to Reuters:

"In a statement to Barron's, Tishman Speyer said the deal is 'a long-term investment.'

Barron's also said two Harlem complexes were carrying hefty debts, with the owner of one close to defaulting on $225 million of senior debt and $25 million of junior debt. Problems at these complexes can be attributed to loose commercial-mortgage underwriting guidelines, Barron's said."

More mini-Macklowes in the making?

Speaking from London earlier today, Michael Bloomberg said the deal for the West Side rail yards was still alive, and called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to work out its differences with Tishman Speyer and come to an agreement. The M.T.A. said it reached an impasse with Tishman Speyer yesterday.

“These projects are phenomenally complex—they have lots of different layers of government involved,” Mr. Bloomberg said, speaking to reporters. “My hope is that the state government, really the M.T.A. in this case, can get together and solve the problems that they have and that Tishman Speyer has so that they can come together. But I don’t think it’s the least bit fair or accurate to say that anything’s dead.”

   read more »

Did Jerry and Rob Speyer dive into a project too big for the real estate giants to handle?

When Tishman Speyer Properties was announced winner of the West Side rail yards development rights in late March, the scene was a cheery one, with the governor and mayor on hand at the yards to hail the Speyers as victors. Now, with the deal apparently dead, the mood has changed substantially [background on the deal collapse here].

In the weeks since the March announcement, Tishman Speyer appeared to grow unexpectedly wary. What was ultimately the sticking point in negotiations—the firm wanted to wait an extra year or so before closing on the eastern rail yard, until the western rail yard was rezoned—was a point that Tishman accepted a few weeks back when it was selected.  read more »

Tishman Speyer appears to be in the pole position going into the final stretch of the West Side rail yards saga, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as of this morning, was still negotiating with the firm to hammer out an agreement before Wednesday’s MTA board meeting, according to three people familiar with the talks.  read more »

Construction king Daniel Tishman is seeking to put a 22-story hotel atop the site of the Playpen Theater, a former pornographic mainstay on Eighth Avenue.

According to applications for building permits filed in recent days, Tishman Asset Corporation, headed by Mr.  read more »

A block of space of more than 220,000 square feet is available for rent at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the signature skyscraper of the city’s illustrious landlord Tishman Speyer.  read more »

o, as we all know by now, Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel will buy the longtime headquarters of The New York Times at 229 West 43rd Street for $525 million.  read more »

It’s the most lucrative era in the history of the city’s commercial real-estate market:  read more »

Every so often, a building comes on the block that immediately transcends all others available, even  read more »

Six months ago, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and real-estate powerhouse Tishman Speyer stood  read more »

Sitt Buckles Into Coney Rollercoaster "Joe Sitt, a 42-year-old developer who has bought up Coney Island's core, got stung a few weeks ago. The city's planning director, Amanda Burden, knocked the economic engine that's supposed to drive the whole thing--condominiums--months before the official rezoning process had even begun." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Stuy Town's So Last Year: Quinn, Speyers Make Nice "Six months ago, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and real-estate powerhouse Tishman Speyer stood on opposite sides of the bidding battle for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Despite Tishman Speyer's triumph and Ms. Quinn's only cautious support of the sale, it appears the two are cozying up. Since January, Rob Speyer, the 37-year-old managing director of Tishman Speyer, has quietly rounded up $22,275 in contributions for Christine Quinn's likely 2009 mayoral run." Go to story by Mark Wellborn and John Koblin. George Lives! Eccentric Economists Toast the Single-Tax Solution "Joshua Vincent remembers the day in 1979 he became a Georgist. 'I was at Oberlin College, and I was a socialist--I loved communism,' Mr. Vincent said on a recent evening. 'I could not wait for the day when all the rich would have their money taken and given to the poor.'" Go to story by Tom Acitelli. Jack the Ripper Doesn't Work Here Any More "Has Donald R. Finley lost his eerie edge? Or is the founder of the Jekyll & Hyde Entertainment Group just fronting a mild-mannered alter ego? His touristy Jekyll & Hyde-themed restaurants, with locations in midtown and the West Village, offer a kookier than spooky special-effects-filled experience not unlike Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion amusement ride, only with chicken fingers and fried calamari. How bizarre, then, that Mr. Finley's newest Manhattan eatery drops the creep-show shtick, altogether." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. SL Green Dreams Grand Central With $76 M. Midtown Buy "The mega-developer SL Green can now build a 900,000-square-foot tower at the foot of Grand Central Terminal. This comes after SL Green purchased two small buildings, one at 331 Madison Avenue and the other at 48 East 43rd Street, for $76 million. SL Green owns a neighboring building on the block at 317 Madison Avenue." Thomas Pink muscles onto Wall Street "The upmarket men's clothier Thomas Pink is moving downtown. Pink has landed a ground-floor lease at 63 Wall Street for just under 4,000 square feet, a broker involved in the deal confirmed." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. Brokaw Buys Barbara Epstein's Artists Haven for $3.26 M. "Godly-voiced newsman Tom Brokaw has bought the duplex apartment that belonged to the godly Barbara Epstein for over half a century. The co-op, at 33 West 67th Street, sold for $3,267,650. At the apartment's dinner table, back in 1962, Ms. Epstein invented The New York Review of Books Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick and then-husband Jason Epstein." Video-Gamer Has $6.25 M. for Soho Penthouse "Dan Houser, a pioneer of splendidly violent video games, has paid $6.25 million for a high-tech duplex penthouse at 20 Greene Street. According to city records, the seller is Charles Ferguson, who sold his firm Vermeer Technologies to Microsoft for $130 million before becoming a documentary filmmaker." Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. Quietly, Midtown Asserts Its Dominance "All of the most expensive recent Manhattan office leases have been in midtown, not in downtown (or anywhere else in the borough, for that matter). In 2006, according to the brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, companies and landlords signed 43 office leases where the rent was at least $100 a square foot--every last one in midtown. So far in 2007, companies and landlords have inked a dozen $100-or-more-a-foot leases--again, all in midtown. This puts 2007 on a breakneck pace to smash last year's record of 43." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. The Broker Hillary Clinton Calls "Kathy Sloane says Manhattan's got 10 top brokers, and she would know; Redford, Clinton, the Donald, Diane Sawyer--she's worked with them all." Go to The Sit-Down by Max Abelson. Amass Appeal "At least a hundred brooms and mops hang from the ceiling of what would, under other circumstances, be the living room of Byron and Susan Bell's 1,500-square-foot 1876 Chelsea townhouse. That room isn't far from five others full of thousands of baskets, pots, mousetraps, locks, toys, tools and hats--all, by the way, very tidy and in perfect aesthetic order. What to make of it all?" Go to Interiors by Toni Schlesinger. Deeds and Deals A Week In New York Real Estate

It was probably one of the few bad times during the Bloomberg administration to be a developer.  read more »

The most expensive building sale in U.S. history, $1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Avenue, is a closed deal.

Cushman & Wakefield, which arranged the sale, released the news on Tuesday. (No matter that it closed on Jan. 12, according to city records--it's a slow news day).

Kushner Companies is the new owner, Tishman Speyer the seller. (The Observer is owned by Jared Kushner of Kushner Companies.)

The full release after the jump.  read more »

- John Koblin

Flip around the year-end issue of Crain's and you'll see a beautifully photoshopped ad for 229 West 43rd Street.

The old New York Times buildng will have lots of leasing space available, and Tishman Speyer is beginning its first wave of telling everyone about it.

The ad promises "great renovations," which the building no doubt needs. (Consider, for example, the mice problem Times reporters famously moan about on the third floor.)

Here's the ad's final sentence, which is a cute payoff, if a tad ungrammatical:

"It presents a rare opportunity that has never come before -- but don't take our word for it -- see it for yourself."

- John Koblin

The Speyer family does everything fabulously, and the only reason you don’t hear more about them i  read more »

Rockefeller Center has long been a haven for staid bank branches, airline ticket offices and other d  read more »

New York Gets to Work  read more »

New York Gets to Work    read more »

New York Gets to Work    read more »

New York Gets to Work    read more »

Well, it's official: Stuy Town and Cooper Village is a closed deal. So much for all those reports of a snafu.

Wow, that was fast - literally, one month to the October day that owner MetLife agreed to sell the apartment complexes to an investment group led by Tishman Speyer.

The new owner's official word: "Tishman Speyer is honored to become the steward of this wonderful property."

And MetLife's giddy announcement after the jump.  read more »

- John Koblin

For the last 60 years—even when all of New York City seemed broke—the forbidding brick t  read more »

For the last 60 years—even when all of New York City seemed broke—the forbidding brick towers an  read more »

Tishman Speyer just bought Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion in one of the largest real estate transactions in American history, and one that could have bog political ramifications in New York.

Met Life has an official statement here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Tishman Speyer, along with BlackRock, won the bidding for Stuyvestant Town and Peter Cooper Village, for $5.4 billion. -Matthew Schuerman

Something has been missing from the New York night-and when I found out, I felt responsible.I should  read more »

While the playoffs dribble on (sans the New York Knicks), the National Basketball Association is lo  read more »

I'm not saying this new crusade of mine is as critically urgent to the intellectual life of the city  read more »

Rockefeller Center has long been a haven for staid bank branches, airline ticket offices and other d  read more »