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June 16, 2009
It came from the Blogosphere...
Curbed LA, Sold! Forest City Unloads Mercury Units To Investors
A press release just issued from real estate development [sic] Kennedy Wilson notes that their firm has purchased the remaining 149 units in The Mercury, that 23-tower condo project developed by Forest City Residential West. The project, which has a total of 238 units, opened in 2007.
...Senior Managing Director Stuart Cramer stated that the condominiums will be priced from the low $200,000’s to the high $700,000’s." Just a few weeks ago, the project was advertising prices starting in the mid-$300s.
UPDATE: According to a spokesperson for Kennedy Wilson, 89 units sold in the Mercury previous to their purchase of the building. So that's 89 units sold over about two years.
NoLandGrab: It's a safe bet that Kennedy Wilson didn't buy all those units to take a loss, and if they've dropped the prices by a third from what Forest City was trying to sell them for, it's also a safe bet that Bruce Ratner's parent company took a hefty loss on this project.
The Provocateur, Ratner and ACORN: Alinsky Would be Proud
More on the strange tale of Brooklyn's odd couple, Bruce Ratner and Bertha Lewis.
In other words, the accumulation of power is far more important that being true to your ideology. Saul Alinsky is the philosophical and strategic god father to groups like ACORN. Keep those thoughts in mind as I unravel this story.
...So, the same person who only years earlier had turned ACORN from an adversary to an ally was now giving a life line to the same group. The story doesn't end there. It turns out that the date on the loan was September 4th, 2008. In other words, Lewis had already signed onto the loan on behalf of ACORN before she even presented the deal to the board. Then, Lewis orchestrated a sham vote in favor of the same deal she had already put into motion. of course, before most of this could be properly investigated internally, most of those that protested were removed and are now members of ACORN 8.
Meanwhile, Ratner, for $2 million, some marketing expenses, and about a thousand underpriced units, was able to get the most effective grassroots group to organize in his favor rather than against him. ACORN, on the other hand, had just gained a long term powerful ally.
Brownstoner, Nets Poised to Cash In on Brooklyn, the Brand?
Newsday checks in on why the Atlantic Yards arena, no matter what it looks like, would be such a boon for the Nets in terms of revenue.
Nets Daily, Critics File “Last, Best Chance” Appeal
Critics of plans for the Nets’ Brooklyn arena have appealed a lower court ruling upholding the state’s right to condemn land for the arena. New York Law Journal called the appeal the critics’ “last, best chance”. The Court of Appeals doesn’t have to take the case. If it does, oral arguments wouldn’t take place for months, perhaps beyond a Dec. 31 deadline for ground breaking, threatening the project.
TimesUnion.com, Looking Back
Technically not from the blogosphere, but hey.
On this date in...
1984: Troy Industrial Development Authority laid down a tax-exempt red carpet for Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based company ready to buy Uncle Sam Atrium.
NLG: The more things change...
Posted by eric at June 16, 2009 3:00 PM