Posted on 01/18/2024 2:35:26 PM PST by dennisw
World's biggest private equity fund takes a $450million hit on prestigious New York landmark amid a collapse in the commercial property market Comes as landlords across the country write down their portfolios in the wake of high interest rates and an exodus of office workers The price of office space has fallen 35 percent since 2022 leaving US banks vulnerable to billions of dollars in shaky loans The world's biggest private equity fund has become the latest victim of America's hollowed out office culture after it marketed its landmark New York building for a quarter of what it paid.
Blackstone paid around $600 million for the 26-storey tower at 1740 Broadway in 2014 but is now offering it to anyone willing to pay the $150million left on the mortgage. It comes just a week after Shorenstein put the 62-storey Aon Center in Los Angeles on the market for $153.5 million, down from the $269 million it paid ten years ago.
Persistent high mortgage rates and the millions of Americans still working from home have been blamed for the collapse in prices and an office vacancy rate reaching a record 19.6 percent in major cities earlier this month.
'I think this is an existential moment,' said RXR real estate boss Scott Rechler.
'This post-COVID world of higher interest rates, the changing nature of how people work and live, we're not going back to where we were, and it's going to be turbulent.'
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Too bad. Carl Icahn was smart enough to short the commercial RE market. Most investors could see it coming.
Same as 2008. Over leveraged loan to value. Over leveraged as to net operating cash flow. The industry keeps making the same mistakes.
Same with screwing over real estate developers like Trump who actually built the city only now to be fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the state.
Why would anyone develop any large-scale new projects in that completely partisan state?
“Ah, the one rule in the multiverse that will always be true: The left ruins everything they touch. Everything”.
That’s the absolute truth.
Ha....wonder how this compares to red state office building occupancy.
And....nice that these creeps get to just stop making payments, on a loan, for nearly TWO years, now.
More like 1/4 of the price based on those numbers....
Marxist Dems crash has started.
Is it a mistake if they make money, and then get bailed out?
Make millions, cash out, laugh at salaried peasants…
Just remember, you can collect your SS at 59, no 62, no 65, no 67, no…
And President Trump is the only one charged with fraud. Something stinks.
Biden will spend out tax dollars to buy it to shelter the illegals.
Looks like a replay of Lehman Brothers collapse.
Those not familiar with the game, watch the movie Margin Call. THIS IS IT, for those with securities backed by those mortages.
“The collapse has been pronounced in the biggest cities with DC facing a 21.1 percent vacancy rate and San Francisco’s 34 percent.”
This will get much worse as leases expire and companies either quit their leased spaces and move to a greater reliance on remote work.
There’s also the major cities that will see companies depart for better locations.
All as those lease terms come up.
Great movie. Jeremy Irons deserved an Oscar.
Maybe NY can put them in jail for lying about valuation.
I’d like to know which ideology that Blackstone supports? Did they support the leftists that wanted to shut down everything during COVID and deny Trump the Presidency in 2020? Or did they support a more conservative cause to keep our economy going?
Biden will announce commercial real estate loan forgiveness in his state of the union address
Stop right there.
I worked on NYC for a long time, chiefly in Midtown. 1740 Broadway is HARDLY a “Landmark.”
Its location is sort of clunky-on the plus side, it’s near a subway stop, Central Park South, and you can drive to it by taking the 56th St exit off the West Sode Hwy. But it isn’t a LANDMARK.
Per a NY Post story, “ EQ bought the 26-story, 600,000 square-foot tower from Vornado in 2014 for $605 million. Although 1740 was full at the time with tenants paying below-market rents, “That number was bananas — slightly more than $1,000 per square foot for a 1950-vintage building in the West 50s that needed a lot of work,” the source said.”
Between the “work from home” dynamic and NYC crime on the ascent, office buildings will have a rough ride, especially as leases come up for renewal. Further, with 2024 being an election year, any bad economic news is bad for Bidet.
But this is reminiscent of Rockefeller Center - which IS a landmark - getting bought in 1989 by Mitsubishi Estate and then the family buying it back out of bankruptcy.
Bulls and bears make money…pigs get slaughtered.
And then lock the doors tight.
Why sell the building? Blackstone should just use it to store its carbon credits. It’ll be worth more than all the tea in China (or the cobalt in Congo).
Blackstone makes grills. Blackrock makes money. Is it Blackstone or Blackrock? It is ab important distinction. If Blackstone Grills had an office building worth 600 million I would be very surprised. If this is a typo I would have real trouble believing someone who doesn’t know the difference between Blackstone and Blackrock. Therefore the story is worthless. Also this was posted yesterday.
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