Is The Apthorp Kaput?

yes. heavily discounted from truly crazy prices to make the threshold. but obviously not sham sales since the passed the AG test. Question now is who would be willing to buy at crazy ask prices knowing your neighbors only paid $1200 psf.

apt23...don't you know that about comps....they are only 'good' comps on the way up. Low prices are anomalies that don't count!

When are Dolly Lenz & Company going to realize that mentioning these celebrity sightings looks horrendous when they don't buy afterwards?

The REAL news at Casa Apthorp these days is that the tenants got a notice recently telling them that from here on in they'll be paying their rent directly to the Anglo Irish Bank and no longer Broadwall Management. Leviev BORROWED the money to buy the Apthorp from Anglo Irish. Hello? This could signal financial catastrophe at this once legendary old grande dame.

This seems far more newsworthy than whatever boldface names looked but didn't buy this week.

And as far as "passing the AG test" goes, puleeze. Cuomo wants to be Governor. And then he wants to be President. Think about how much money he gets from real estate people!

are you suggesting that the sales were not "arms length"? I'm sure that not all of them were, given the credibility of this developer, but they far exceeded the 15% threshold. I would think the AG --given his ambitions-- would not want to screw up.

You aren't SURE that they were? Says the woman who called the NYPD to report that her husband illegally bought a gun and then when they showed up, said that she was just kidding, but since they were there, could they look into her neighbor who she didn't like?

How come nobody is commenting on the sales discounts that showed up over the weekend? Units were sold in excess of 80% discounts - one small unit sold for a couple of hundred a foot. Is there any hope that they will be able to recover from this? It seems to me that the rush to close deals has poisoned the well. Thoughts??

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/apthorp-lender-anglo-irish-bank-steers-rents-away-from-landlord-lev-leviev-of-africa-israel-and-manager-the-feil-organization-and-investor-maurice-mann

Apthorp lender diverts rents from landlord
Brokers and tenants react to fire sale prices as closings commence

Following the start of closings at the Apthorp, tenants at the Upper West Side condominium conversion have been told to send rent payments to a new address controlled by Anglo Irish Bank, suggesting there could be more financial trouble looming at the building, according to legal sources and documents obtained by The Real Deal.

The tenant sale mentioned in the RealDeal article was 11J, $3.6M for 3069 ft². It's a 3/4.5 (MBR has two) with large foyer, library, LR and DR. 9/2/2009 contract.

Buyer of record is an LLC whose authorized signatory is listed as that unit's tenant in the 2006 rent roll. Back then they were paying $21,500 per month.

The right to collect rents from tenants is generally one of the rights that borrowers grant lenders
in mortgages and promissory notes, if but only if the borrower defaults in payment of the loan.

Although that right can be exercised privately via what is known as mortgagee-in-possession, it is
generally enforced by courts in foreclosure proceedings, in the context of motions by lenders to have
a receiver appointed for the collateral property.

Receivers are often more damaging to buildings than bedbugs, so if I had to choose between which of the two to have in a building I own, I would need to give the choice a lot of thought.

Appointment of a receiver will also complicate both the sales and closing process, because he/she/it
might - or probably - will be given legal control over all the unclosed units at The Apthorp.

Also, if lender Anglo-Irish has a lien on the Common Elements, e.g., building entrances, elevators, and
on the land underneath the A[thorp - and they would be foolish not too, its foreclosure could wipe out
the ownership rights of already closed buyers.

Since many readers here are interested in getting deals, here's my preliminary assessment: at some time
Apthorp might offer a tremendous relative buying opportunity - the lender will probably not kill the
condo but go forward and eventually sell the unsold units - but interested parties will need to monitor
the situation very closely for at least some time to see how things play out.

rb: isn't it further complicated by the fact that Anglo Irish faced some steep trouble of it own in the RE meltdown and it is now essentially controlled by the Irish Govt. My guess is that the govt, on behalf of its citizen taxpayers will want to get out from this troubled obligation rather quickly.

true, apt23 & rb345.
Place is a legal/financial mess.

A couple of things here rb. Anglo probably just instituted it's right to collect rents through a lockbox. This would be a contractual right exercisable without court order (as opposed to a receiver). Given that there hasn't been mention of a receiver, I assume this is just a simple lockbox. Also Anglo would have been required to subordinate its mortgage to the condo dec before units were released. Very doubtful in my opinion that Anglo has a lien on common elements (other than the interests in the common elements owned by unit owners) or that the AG's office would allow it. Anglo's lien would now be on the units that the sponsor still owns. If it foreclosed, it would own a whole bunch of units, not the elevators.

jojo10:

1. I have no actual knowledge of what AI mortgage docs state or what it has done
2. in Coops, the ownership rights of unit owners are generally subordinate to the lien of a Coop lender
3. the Attorney General's office doesnt regulate offering plans substantively
4. it just requires disclosure of relevant facts and material risks
5. you would need to review the Apthorp's offering plan to determine what AI's rights are

Anglo Irish is the lender to the sponsor of the condo. It's not the lender to the condo association (at least as far as I know) (and Anglo certainly is not a lender to a coop, at least not at this bulding since it's a condo). Once the condo dec is filed, the lender's lien is subordinated to the condo dec and becomes a lien on the condo units still owned by the sponsor. At this point, in many ways Anglo Irish's collateral is no different than the collateral of a lender to any individual condo owner at the building-it's just that Anglo has liens on a whole bunch of units, in addition to presumably having the right to vote on behalf of the sponsor and some ancillary collateral. I do agree that if a lender has a loan to a coop corp., its lien is superier to the rights of the coop's shareholders (as well as being superior to the lenders to the shareholders. Essentially a lender to a coop shareholder has what people in the commercial context would call a mezzanine loan).

10E has sold to an LLC of the Koschitzky family, one of whom bought 11J. As mentioned above, they'd been renting 11J since at least 2002.

Now they're looking to rent out 10E: http://www.fkgrealestate.com/listing_details.aspx?lid=837577

Nice

"As if the Apthorp condominium wasn't already embroiled in enough controversy, the latest news out of 390 West End Avenue is sure to sound off alarms within the real estate community. Prudential Douglas Elliman's Dolly Lenz and her entire sales team at the conversion -- who were brought on last July and charged with the formidable task of helping the 163-unit building across its required 15 percent-sold mark in a little over a month -- have resigned, according to an e-mail from Lenz sent to Apthorp management Tuesday and obtained by Curbed. In the e-mail, which was addressed to Andrew Ratner of the Feil Organization, Lenz and her team cited unpaid commissions, "a total lack of communication and direction" and "a continuing situation beyond our control." That situation, they wrote, "is negatively impacting our reputations, a situation which we can no longer permit to continue." Neither Lenz or the Feil Organization were available for comment when contacted by The Real Deal; the Apthorp's sales office voice mailbox is still directing callers to Lenz."
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/lenz-and-prudential-douglas-elliman-sales-team-resign-from-the-apthorp-condominium-over-unpaid-commissions

Goodbye, Dolly!

We were watching that "Man Shops Globe" show on Sundance channel (good show--that guy has a great job),
and at one point they showed the courtyard of the Apthorp.
Now I don't know if that guy lives there or not; but seems to me to be an effort to get a few bucks in there.

Wow. What a nightmare. The developer is belly up and the bank is in so much trouble it threatens the entire economy of Ireland. Now the (arguably) most important broker in NYC has resigned. Only press is about the rats. How would you feel if you bought last summer, thinking you were getting a great deal. I smell block sales at big discounts. I'm sure the bank wants out immediately. So if there are any lemmings left ---- here is your big chance.

Was just catching up on the three most recent of the 29 sales so far. All three at the insider price of $1171 per ft². One doesn't appear to have been a tenant, but maybe a spouse was or she bought the rights.

What's interesting is that 8H was one of the few (maybe only) so far to buy with a mortgage. Citi lent him a few bucks more than the full with-taxes purchase price.

9G was paying $13,000 for her apartment in 2006. 8H, like several other insiders, did a swap. He'd been paying $11,000 for 9A.

Today's (12/14) paper has a story about an Apthorp tenant, with a great picture of a panelled dining room. It's #4F, and she was paying $2100 in 2006. As the story said, the tenant isn't whining, as she's a trustee and apparently a beneficiary of family trusts that owned 20% of the building when it sold in 2006.

Thanks for the notification, NWT. Nice read.

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/34902?pic=219588

NWT: what does that work out to? 20% of 400ish million, 80m.

IMO, Holocaust survivors get a special bye in my books. I don't begrudge the 11' ceilings or the woodwork. Though, it broke my heart a little to see the painted over (guck!) woodwork.

Looks as if it's a multi-generational trust with has lots of beneficiaries. Nice chunk either way. They must've thought they'd died and gone to heaven when what's-his-face turned up with $400M+.

I liked that door built into the paneling to the right of the fireplace. Now it goes to a sort of dressing room, but might've been a pantry door originally.

The full-screen photos at the listing for #9ABC (http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=2124002) are good for seeing what the some of the apartments are like without sponsor renovations. Great rooms, but paint problems. Kitchens with lots of stone but cheap cabinets. The previous owner didn't trash the place, but didn't need to plow lots of money into the market-rate apartments.

It seems a bit early for #9ABC to try to flip. Paid $14M, now asking $17M-something.

Today's paper says #2A (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/593769-condo-390-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york) has sold at the $6.3M ask.

If that's true (nothing in ACRIS yet) then it'd be the first resale.

Oops, make that $10,630,000.

#2A didn't sell.

A block of five occupied RC & RS apartments (3.4516% of the building) sold last month for $11,000,000, or $760 per ft².

They were renting in 2006 for $11,410 total, so figure $13,400 today, plus whatever MCI increases have been applied.

The buyer was the Melohn family. They've already got a bunch of rental apartments in buildings they converted to co-op, e.g. 305 W 86th.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/571569-condo-390-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york

Let's start at the bottom price point. It has been sitting forever and am interested to see where this is going to end up.

It'd been a while since I checked eCourts for more on the Apthorp follies. Lo and behold, there's another gold-mine of e-filed documents from a few months ago. They're to do with Mann and the other partners bickering over whether he gets an apartment for himself.

At eCourts, http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASSearch, do an Index Search for 102685/2011.

Document #3, the Ratner Affidavit with Exhibits, is good, as it includes copies of the partnership agreements, etc. It seems that while Africa Israel got the publicity for the $426,000,000 purchase, they ponied up only 51% of the initial $114,000,000 capital, with Mann, Braha, and the Jordache guy divvying up the rest.

The other documents -- e-mails between the lawyers, etc. -- also make for good reading on a slow day.

So it doesn't get lost, unlinked as it is to the building, here's a new discussion: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/28593-apthorp-ordered-to-return-deposits

Mann closed in October on PH3A at the Laureate (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/586340-condo-2150-broadway-upper-west-side-new-york) for $7,370,000 with a $2,500,000 mortgage.

In September, he sold his old place in the Eldorado for $3,300,000 to the upstairs neighbors: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/closing/1972175

Oops, make that "closed in November". December crept up on me....

"Africa Israel Cedes Control of New York’s Apthorp Complex"

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-14/africa-israel-cedes-control-of-new-york-s-apthorp-complex

Crazy, they're still asking $2k psf for these? Of course, still a major decline from $3k psf...

The #7J resale just closed. A decent flip, bought from the sponsor when things were looking bad. It seems to have been one of the unrenovated as-is ones, as the new kitchen and baths differ from the sponsor-renovated style. A year to renovate and 15 months to unload.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/682008-condo-390-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york

10/14/2009 Previously Listed in StreetEasy, already in contract, by Douglas Elliman
12/28/2010 Previous Sale recorded for $3,906,261.
11/23/2011 Previously Listed by Corcoran
04/20/2012 Corcoran Listing is no longer available Last priced at $6,745,000.
05/05/2012 Listed by Douglas Elliman at $6,750,000.
01/14/2013 Listing entered contract.
02/25/2013 Sale recorded for $6,250,000.