And the Cycle Continues: Stuy Town Ownership to Change Hands Again
Photo via Wiki Commons
It looks like Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village may be headed back to auction. Manhattan’s largest rental community is no stranger to the game of musical chairs that their owners have been inadvertently playing. The complex, comprised of 80 acres, 110 buildings, and 11,231 units between 14th and 23rd Streets, has had an interesting decade. It sold to Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock for a record $5.4 billion at the height of the real estate boom in 2006. Despite being accused of trying to push out lower income residents with high prices, they actually defaulted on their loan in 2010. Ownership of the property was transferred to the lenders, represented by CWCapital.
As of Tuesday, CWCapital was preparing to foreclose on some of the loans. If everything goes as planned, they’ll be the official owners of the property in less than a month. CWCapital released a statement promising the “foreclosure process will have no impact on our residents or on property operations”.
Well, if history is a predictor of the future, the residents of Stuy Town are collectively rolling their eyes. There are already rumors swirling that Fortress Investment Group LLC is quietly seeking financing to put in a $4.7 billion bid to purchase the property. If another sale does occur, city councilman Daniel Garodnick wants to make sure the tenants are involved in the process. One thing’s for sure. This isn’t the residents’ first rodeo. If court-based experience is any indicator, this community has made it clear they’ll be very much involved… like it or not.
[Via Bloomberg, New York Times, and New York Daily News]
