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Lehman Brothers

By Daniel Geiger 1/17 1:00pm

power broker

Angela Pinsky. (Photo by Kiki Conway)

What Does Seth Pinsky’s Wife Know About Real Estate? A Lot, It Turns Out.

Perhaps the best way to describe Angela Pinsky’s advocacy for the real estate industry is by saying that when she joined the Real Estate Board of New York almost two years ago, she didn’t see her job as much different from the one she was leaving in the mayor’s office.

“I work on a lot of the same issues,” said Ms. Pinsky, who married Economic Development Corporation head Seth Pinsky last summer. “The thing about the real estate industry, it’s very civic minded. Many owners are family businesses and there’s this strong tradition in the industry of wanting projects and policies that are best not just for the industry’s own interests, but for the entire city.

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5 By Tom Acitelli 6/27/11 9:01am

Building Expectations

How the Lehman-ade gets made.

Lehman Brothers Unloads 200 Fifth to JPMorgan in $700 M. Deal

As expected (we noted last week this would likely happen and soon), Lehman Brothers has agreed to unload its majority stake in the old Toy Building at 200 Fifth Avenue in a deal that values it at about $700 million. It is one of the biggest building sales of 2011 so far, and one of the most significant moves by the croaked investment bank's holding company in its campaign to liquidate its real estate. The buyer is a wing of JPMorgan.

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6 By Laura Kusisto 6/22/11 7:29am

Progress?

A real asset: 200 Fifth Avenue.

Lehman Lives: Zombie I-Bank Takes Manhattan

When real estate executive David Sigman first walked into 25 Broad Street, about a year after Lehman collapsed, it was a funhouse of pre-2008 distractions: the lobby unfolded with yards of purple carpeting ringed by red circles into a would-be night club with dozens of crystal chandeliers and a mauve-color spa/yoga room. Most striking of all were the matching royal portraits of developer Kent Swig and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Liz Macklowe.

The Observer recently reported that the first 10 apartment tenants had signed at 25 Broad, bringing the failed condo conversion back to life as a rental—and Lehman Brothers, twitching, back with it.

Not even three years after the bank’s collapse took the economy with it, Lehman, through its holding company, lives on, a rosy zombie quietly looking to make a small fortune off prime New York properties, and maybe—just maybe—pay off some creditors.

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By Laura Kusisto 5/26/11 8:48pm

Haunted Houses

Making Lehman-ade! First 10 Tenants Sign at 25 Broad

It's looking rather post-Lehman at 25 Broad Street these days (even though the failed investment bank is still involved). The first 10 tenants have signed at the mammoth downtown residential tower of erstwhile Kent Swig fame.

Recall, Bruce Menin and his partners bought the 20-story office building for a dime in the late '90s, before converting Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/20/10 5:16pm

Legal Matters

Authorities Take On Lehman Auditor

Ernst & Young smelled what Lehman Brothers was cooking -- the books! but authorities now believe the company charged with auditing the collapsed financial firm was also complicit in the company's accounting shenanigans, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

In what may be his final act before he heads up to Albany to become Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/20/10 1:27pm

Wall Street

Morning Roundup: A Real Need for Bonuses

  • Even though their salaries have risen substantially in recent years, it would still hurt Wall Street employees' feelings if they didn't get any bonuses this year. [NYT]
  • The accountants at Ernst & Young are in trouble with the state of New York for allegedly twiddling their thumbs and whistling to themselves as their client Lehman Read More
By Mike Taylor 12/16/10 1:32pm

Wall Street

Morning Roundup: Banks’ Capital Shortfalls

  • The big banks are not sufficiently capitalized to meet the new Basel III requirements, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The shortfall could be as large as $762.85 billion. [WSJ]
  • If Basel III had been put in place for the end of 2010, banks would have faced a bill of $797 billion. Fortunately they Read More
By Max Abelson 11/17/10 2:39am

Where Are They Now?

"Have you ever noticed," the chairman of Citigroup, Richard D. Parsons, asked The Observer this Monday evening, "that in the NFL, or in the NBA, or in Major League Baseball, this guy was a failure at Cleveland, and then he becomes the coach in Houston? These guys just move around from one team to another. Read More

By Max Abelson 11/03/10 12:57am

Thomas Russo, the Secret Scribe of AIG

One of the most important people in finance was overlooking Central Park from his Fifth Avenue apartment, enjoying the Bach that his twin teenage daughters were playing on violin and speaking to the young Fulbright scholars from Iraq and China he'd invited for a reception. "In everything I do, I always ask myself, 'Am I Read More

By Alexandra Peers 9/25/10 11:30pm

Lehman’s Hirst Spurned by Art Buyers

Ouch. Two names emblematic of the profligate economic boom took a hit on Saturday

Sotheby's held its bankruptcy court-forced sale of the collection of Lehman Brothers and Neuberger Berman and, while the overall results were strong, there was one notable failure.

Damien Hirst's 1993 We've got Style, (The Vessel Collection, blue/green) failed to find a buyer at Read More

By Alexandra Peers 9/22/10 1:08am

Art World News

Eye on Lehman Art

The Sotheby's sale of the Lehman Brothers-Neuberger Berman contemporary art collection on Saturday, Sept. 25, will be keenly watched. As the first major contemporary art sale of the season, and one where works by some big names are priced competitively, it is a likely bellwether of the art market. We asked Sergey Skaterschikov, head of Read More