The New York Observer » Macklowe Properties

Places, Everyone! The New Development Boom Is About to Start

Thick black slabs of plywood encase what some call North America's most valuable development site. The location of the onetime Drake Hotel, now a rubble-strewn yard at Park Avenue and 56th Street, is literally a black box.

A black box to everyone, that is, except Harry Macklowe. Barely two years after his fortune was nearly Read More

Macklowe Guns to Take Back 510 Madison

Harry Macklowe—the self-made real estate tycoon whose ill-fated $7 billion 2007 purchase of a portfolio of New York skyscrapers rendered him a symbol of the perils of overleveraging—is trying to reassert some control.

Mr. Macklowe is competing against fellow tycoon Douglas Durst, among others, in a bid to buy back the mortgage on one of his Read More

Worldwide Potential

When Worldwide plaza was completed in 1989, the West Side conjured thoughts of West Side Story, not high-end office space.

Fast-forward 20 years, and the sale of Worldwide Plaza—the 47-story granite and brick edifice that towers above Hell’s Kitchen, spanning 49th and 50th streets and Eighth and Ninth avenues—has been 2009’s biggest New York City building Read More

Payment Due! Class A Midtown Loans

As conditions in Manhattan’s commercial market grow grimmer, one question continues to dog investors: Where’s the debt and how can I break me off a piece?

The Manhattan office market dropped 22.9 percent between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009, according to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price September Indices, compared to 30.1 percent regionally and Read More

The Macklowe Selloff: What Happened to Harry’s Buildings

Good-bye to all that.

Last week’s news that a deal had been cut for the sale of Worldwide Plaza marks the coda of Harry Macklowe’s investment adventure. It began in the heady days of early 2007, when his Macklowe Properties—and various lenders—bought seven Manhattan towers via Blackstone and Sam Zell’s Equity Office Portfolio for over Read More

$224 M. Drake Hotel Site Mortgage Up For Sale

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.” Read More

Macklowe Further Consolidates Control Over Drake Hotel Site

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.

According to The Real Deal:

The move puts Macklowe Properties a step closer to full control Read More

Deutsche Sues to Foreclose on Macklowe’s Drake Hotel Site

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 Read More

Billy Macklowe Officially Takes Charge of Macklowe Properties

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 Read More

City Deeds Suggest a Finished GM Building Deal

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 Read More

Zuckerman: GM Building Deal ‘Closing As We Speak’

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 Read More

Zuckerman’s New GM Building Crew?

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 Read More

Macklowes Drop $7 Billion for Eight Buildings

Whew, done already? Macklowe Properties has closed on eight EOP buildings for $7 billion. Harry Macklowe swept in and bought the buildings from Blackstone. The only building not included? 1095 Avenue of the Americas. Release after the jump. - John Koblin MACKLOWE PROPERTIES BUYS EIGHT MANHATTAN OFFICE BUILDINGS FROM EOP COMPRISING 6.5 MILLION SF OF Read More