Macklowe Properties

In an apparent effort to raise cash, the struggling iStar Financial has put its $224 million Drake Hotel site mortgage on the block, according to a knowledgeable source.

“They’re a mortgage REIT and they need cash,” said the source. “The development is not going anywhere today. It’s in default. It’s not paying interest currently.”

The development site in question is the plot bounded by 56th and 57th streets and Park Avenue, once home to the Drake Hotel. Macklowe Properties has long had plans to erect some sort of tower there—reports bounce back and forth between residential and office tower plans. Either way, the project looks increasingly unlikely to materialize.  read more »

A Macklowe Properties-affiliated company has paid $5.35 million to buy out a lease at 38 East 57th Street, further consolidating control over the site where the family-owned firm has long planned to build some sort of hotel and condo project.  read more »

Hot damn! The Real Deal is reporting that Deutsche Bank is suing Macklowe Properties "to foreclose on $482 million in principal loaned to develop the Drake Hotel site at Park Avenue and 56th Street, according to a complaint filed [on Aug. 28] in New York State Supreme Court."

According to the report:

"The suit seeks to regain control not only of the 24,000-square-foot development site at the corner of Park Avenue and 56th Street, but also six properties that were drawn into the development loan."

Macklowe Properties has reportedly been planning to erect a 70-story residential tower at the site. But talk of the Macklowe plans have been overshadowed by the firm's well-publicized wrangling with Deutsche Bank over other problematic loans.  read more »

In the wake of his father Harry's near disastrous over-leveraging of the family business, Billy Macklowe has officially been named Macklowe Properties' new chairman and CEO. He has been working with his father since 1992, after a stint as a real estate finance analyst for Manufactures Hanover.

His father Harry has been named Chairman Emeritus of the firm.

The father and son were said to have a fractious relationship, which, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, was made worse by Macklowe Properties' credit crisis woes. The tension between the two is said to have helped precipitate this change in the ranks.  read more »

Early on Tuesday afternoon, Mort Zuckerman told a REBNY luncheon that he and his partners were closing on the approximately $2.8 billion purchase of the GM Building "as we speak."

At 4:38 p.m., a deed hit city records marking a $690 million transaction between Mr. Zuckerman's group and Macklowe Properties, the former owner of the GM Building, for the office tower at 761 Fifth Avenue (an address for the GM Building).  read more »

The GM Building sale is "closing as we speak." That's according to Mort Zuckerman, who is addressing a Real Estate Board of New York luncheon this afternoon.

Mr. Zuckerman's Boston Properties, along with partners including Goldman Sachs, negotiated the purchase of the Macklowe Properties building late last month in a deal that valued it at around $2.8 billion. It's the most expensive building sale ever.

Boston Properties’ purchase of the GM Building has not even gone through yet, but it appears that Mort Zuckerman is already shaking things up at the Midtown office tower he and his partners are expected to formally own within the next week.

We visited the GM Building after the deal was negotiated over Memorial Day Weekend, and rumors were already circulating that current maintenance and security crews should expect their marching orders at the end of May.

This morning, a new doorman outside the Apple Store told us his employer Quality Building Services had recently gotten the contract on the GM Building, and Monday was his first day on duty.  read more »