TIMES DODGES BULLET WITH COSTLY HQ SALE (Pinch takes out 11% subprime real estate loan)

NY Post ^ | 3/10/09 | HOLLY M. SANDERS

[jimbo123]

The New York Times has once again gotten itself some financial breathing room - and once again it's coming at a high price.

The cash-strapped newspaper yesterday finally struck a deal with investment firm W.P. Carey & Co. to sell space in its sleek Midtown Manhattan headquarters for $225 million, and lease it back from the buyer.

As part of the deal, W.P. Carey is paying a low purchase price and getting a high initial rate of return - known in the industry as the capitalization rate - of nearly 11 percent. Real-estate experts said the Times is paying a significant price to get this deal done amid a commercial real-estate slump and a severe economic downturn. Indeed, what weighed on the Times deal, experts said, was the vacant, 1.1 million-square-foot office building at 11 Times Square.

[wac3rd]

Don’t worry, Slim has the guarantee...

[ninonitti]

Interesting parallel with the economic collapse going on overall. Anyone who is able is re-hocking themselves to last another 6 months.....a little more air at a higher interest rate works for the powers that be. What happens when they accumulate all the wealth?

[scooby321]

NYT getting Mafia types loans from Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim, The money comes at a steep interest rate: 14 percent.

and now hocked their building. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Punky.

[gridlock]

It made absolutely no sense for the New York Times to build a new building. It was a vanity project, pure and simple. They were in adequate space. Even if they needed new space, there was adequate space available all over Midtown.

Building the building was a vanity project for Pinch. In good economic times, such stupid decisions can be sustained. In tight economic times, they are the difference between failure and survival.

[Obadiah]

The NYTimes

[central_va]

I fully expect Obama to bail out the grey old #@($#*$.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Pinch is just following Obama’s lead. This is his ‘stimulus’ plan for THEE new york times.

[Loyal Buckeye]

This sale-leaseback goes to the heart of the problem with Pinch. He would lose face if he sold the building outright, so he did a sale-leaseback with the intent of repurchasing the building at the end of the lease.

[Grampa Dave]

Wonder what rate the Mafia is giving Pinch?

[abb]

[Grampa Dave]

BOL!

Pinch is probably black and blue and both ends.

[Liz]

Saving face with PR stunts----the NYT has been selling off real estate for some time.....that's how you know they're in deep trouble.

Pinch's daddy is having DNA tests done to make sure he actually sired the screwup.

[Vroomfondel]

I’m sure there must be a Monty Python ping list to which one could issue a “machine that goes ping” ping, but I sure don’t know about it.