THOR EQUITIES SCOOPING UP VALUABLE PROPERTIES FOR NEXT TO NOTHING… JONA RECHNITZ AND JSR CAPITAL… WHAT’S THEIR YIELD????
WE ARE GOING ON A THEORY:
Tell us…
What happens to a building when it is leased or sold at below market rates?
The value of that building and all of the units in that building fall, drop, sink, use your word of choice.
What happens then?
Well… An Equity firm goes in and saves the day, buying 70 units for far below market value.
So, did Jona Rechnitz ruin market efforts or did he purposely sabotage marketing efforts so that the building would be worthless?
And, who owns the building anyway…???
In our view, Jona Rechnitz is nothing if not very, very predictable. We believe that the news articles that follow in large part missed the point. Jona Rechnitz did not ruin a building because he failed. Quite the contrary, he succeeded. Thor Equities got a steal…. And, if Rechnitz was involved, there is money behind the deals closed to sink the value of the units in that building.
What commonalities can we find?
we are looking…
Jona Rechnitz ruined marketing efforts at the Apthorp: report
therealdeal.com/2016/08/02/jona-rechnitz-ruined-marketing-efforts-at-the-apthorp-report/
The man at the center of a New York City Police Department corruption scandal reportedly sabotaged efforts to sell units at the Apthorp by wasting a marketing budget and selling condos to friends, according to a report.
Jona Rechnitz, an alumnus of Africa Israel and head of JSR Capital, blew through a $20 million marketing budget and sold four units at deep discounts to friends and family members at the troubled Upper West Side building, the New York Post reported.
Rechnitz is a key figure in a federal investigation in an NYPD pay-to-play scandal, in which he allegedly provided gifts and trips to officers — including a flight with a prostitute to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. That investigation is part of a larger investigation into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign fundraising activities. Rechnitz donated $50,000 to the mayor’s now-defunct Campaign for One New York.
Maurice Mann, another investor, had failed to turn a profit and had run into financial disputes with Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel, which bought a 50 percent stake in the Apthorp, at 2211 Broadway. The building was converted to condos in 2008.
Rechnitz, who Post sources said was a low-on-the-totem-pole assistant, was tapped to sell the units for Leviev, with a $20 million budget to market the units. He spent the budget on extravagant advertisements, including one where he flew a plane full of male models to Europe for a cheesy ad, but had little success in actually unloading the units, the newspaper reported.
An investor in the property eventually brought on Dolly Lenz (then of Douglas Elliman) to help sell the condos, but Rechnitz took four of the units and sold them well below market rate, Lenz told the Post. He sold one of the penthouses to “Real Housewives of New York” cast member Julianne Wainstein for $217,998. The unit was worth $2 million at the time.
Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is currently in contract to buy 70 of the Apthorp’s units for $120 million. The rest of the nine units are vacant. [NYP] — Kathryn Brenzel
Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/02/2016 – 10:29
The man at the center of a New York City Police Department corruption scandal reportedly sabotaged efforts to sell units at the Apthorp by wasting a marketing budget and selling condos to friends, according to a report.
Jona Rechnitz, an alumnus of Africa Israel and head of JSR Capital, blew through a $20 million marketing budget and sold four units at deep discounts to friends and family members at the troubled Upper West Side building, the New York Post reported.
Rechnitz is a key figure in a federal investigation in an NYPD pay-to-play scandal, in which he allegedly provided gifts and trips to officers — including a flight with a prostitute to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. That investigation is part of a larger investigation into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign fundraising activities. Rechnitz donated $50,000 to the mayor’s now-defunct Campaign for One New York.
Maurice Mann, another investor, had failed to turn a profit and had run into financial disputes with Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel, which bought a 50 percent stake in the Apthorp, at 2211 Broadway. The building was converted to condos in 2008.
Rechnitz, who Post sources said was a low-on-the-totem-pole assistant, was tapped to sell the units for Leviev, with a $20 million budget to market the units. He spent the budget on extravagant advertisements, including one where he flew a plane full of male models to Europe for a cheesy ad, but had little success in actually unloading the units, the newspaper reported.
An investor in the property eventually brought on Dolly Lenz (then of Douglas Elliman) to help sell the condos, but Rechnitz took four of the units and sold them well below market rate, Lenz told the Post. He sold one of the penthouses to “Real Housewives of New York” cast member Julianne Wainstein for $217,998. The unit was worth $2 million at the time.
Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is currently in contract to buy 70 of the Apthorp’s units for $120 million. The rest of the nine units are vacant. [NYP] — Kathryn Brenzel
Sitt splashes $120M on 71 units at Apthorp condo building
http://therealdeal.com/2016/05/06/sitt-splashes-120m-on-71-units-at-apthorp-condo-building/
Joseph Sitt is reportedly picking up 71 sponsor units at the historic Apthorp condominium building on the Upper West Side for $120 million.
Sitt is paying $810 per square foot for the apartments at 390 West End Avenue, according to the New York Post – which would peg the total square footage of the 71 units being acquired at more than 148,000 square feet.
The landmarked 12-story building was built in 1908 and occupies a full city block bound by Broadway, West End Avenue, West 78th and West 79th streets.
In addition to its storied history, the Apthorp also has a more checkered recent past. Billionaire Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel partnered with developer Maurice Mann to acquire the then-rental building for $426 million in early 2007 with plans for a condo conversion.
But the project was met by tenant opposition, financing difficulties and disappointing sales amid the financial crisis and subsequent recession – with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman eventually stepping in and halting sales, after an investigation into misleading statements made by the developers to the AG’s office.
Africa Israel later lost control of the Apthorp to lender Area Property Partners in 2012, and sales at the property eventually picked up.
Michael Fascitelli is Thor’s partner on $120M Apthorp deal
http://therealdeal.com/2016/05/18/michael-fascitelli-is-thors-partner-on-120m-apthorp-deal/
Michael Fascitelli is Joseph Sitt’s partner on the purchase of 71 sponsor units at the Apthorp on the Upper West Side, sources told The Real Deal.
The New York Post reported earlier this month that Sitt’s Thor Equities was buying the condominium units for $120 million, or $810 per square foot, but Fascitelli‘s involvement through his firm Imperial Companies was not revealed at the time.
The partners plan to first sell 10 vacant units, which were formerly operated as market-rate rentals. Then, as tenants move out of the 61 rent-stabilized units, the firms will sell those units as condos, too.
The Apthorp has an unusual past. The landmarked 12-story property at 390 West End Avenue was constructed in 1908 as rentals. In 2007, Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel and Maurice Mann’s Mann Realty Associates acquired it for $26 million, with plans for a condo conversion.
Factors such as financing troubles, tenant opposition and subpar sales led the project to stall, however. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman halted sales following a probe over misleading statements made by the developers. Lender AREA Property Partners, now known as Ares Management, pulled the building out of foreclosure in 2012, and condo sales resumed. Of the 160 total apartments, 71 are sponsor units that have been operated as rentals and remain unsold.
Condo sales so far have averaged $2,710 per square foot, according to StreetEasy data cited by the Post.
Thor’s residential arm – led by Alan Klein and Jonathan Fishman – and Imperial are expected to close on the units by mid-summer, sources said. There were no brokers on the deal, sources added.
After he stepped down as CEO of Vornado Realty Trust in 2013, Fascitelli went into a brief hibernation before partnering with fellow Vornado alum Eric Birnbaum to form Imperial in 2014. The firm is a co-developer of a 30-story, 225-unit rental tower at509 West 38th Street, and was also scoping out a Williamsburg waterfront site at 470 Kent Avenue with 500,000 buildable square feet.
Continue reading here.
http://www.afigroup-global.com/afi_usa_new_york.htm
Times Square Building (Commercial Offices, Retail)
Approximately 250,000 square feet of retail space on the ground and lower and upper levels. During July 2011 AFI completed the sale of the class A office space in the building for the amount of nearly 160 Million usd.
LOSTMESSIAH 