insight
工程技術，地產投資，信仰家園，時尚生活
2009
最近，紐約地產圈兒大家談論最多的就是通用大廈的轉手。
六月初，波士頓地產集團（Boston Properties）聯手高盛集團旗下的一支地產基金和來自中東的私募金主，以28億美金從麥柯龍（Macklowe）地產集團買下紐約中城的通用大廈（GM Building）。這宗交易不僅是本年度美國商業地產的最大的一筆買賣，也是有史以來最大的一宗單幢樓交易，而且被看作是經曆了次貸危機後，商業地產市場開始呈現穩定的一個跡象。包括《花兒街日報》在內的各大媒體紛紛報道此事，成為自去年黑石集團收購股本寫字樓地產公司（EOP）之後，最受矚目的一筆交易。
通用大廈位於曼哈頓中城第五大道，毗鄰中央公園，是著名的紐約第五大道精品購物街的起點，建於1968年，乃地標性建築之一，幾經轉手，早已和通用公司沒有關係，但名稱卻保留了下來。現在是很多華爾街金融大腕兒和著名商家的老窩，象最近在雅虎（Yahoo）策動革命的卡爾伊坎（Carl Icahn），以及化妝品公司雅詩蘭黛（Estee Lauder）都是這裏的租戶。對許多地產商來說，擁有通用大廈是一種身份和地位的象征，就象吃了唐僧肉可以長生不老一樣。亨利麥柯龍（Harry Macklowe）就是個吃了唐僧肉的。
麥老爹是麥氏集團的掌門，在紐約地產圈兒以敢於冒險著稱，號稱已經“死過不下千回”了，旗下擁有數棟紐約地標性摩天大樓。麥老爹2003年以14億美金從地產大亨創普（Trump）手中買下通用大廈，將前庭及內部多處重新整修，梧桐樹招來了金鳳凰，於2006年成功引入蘋果電腦（Apple）開設旗艦店，並全天候24小時營業。在美金大幅貶值，歐洲遊客絡繹不絕之際，一舉成為紐約城最時尚的觀光購物景點。所以，麥家是把通用大廈當成了親閨女來捧著守著。
為了給通用大廈添幾個小兄弟，麥老爹去年借了70億美金，從黑石集團（Blackstone）手中買下七棟位於曼哈頓的摩天大樓，而這七棟大樓是黑石 2007年以創紀錄的高價收購山姆澤爾（Sam Zell）的股本寫字樓地產公司（EOP）後整買零賣的。麥老爹以為資本市場依然紅火，地產市場仍舊強勁，所以這70億他借的是一年期的過渡性貸款，而其中的12億還是從私募基金以私人財產抵押的方式借的。他想著一年內重新貸款或者把大樓轉手賣給下家，所以在整個交易中，麥老爹隻從自己腰包掏了區區5千萬美金。對一般人，5千萬是個不小的數目，但對一筆70多億美金的地產交易，這可是個超級大杠杆，和阿基米德翹地球的杠杆有一拚。可是人算不如天算。到今年二月份，由於次貸危機導致的資本枯竭和地產交易萎縮，麥氏集團既無法獲得新的貸款償還舊債，也無法以更高的價格將樓賣掉，隻好將七座大廈的控製權轉交給債主德意誌銀行。但這並不能解決從私募基金借的12億美金，而根據協議，這筆錢（已經利滾利漲到了14億）可以從麥氏的私人財產追繳（麥老爹快變成楊白勞楊老爹了）。情急之下，麥老爹想起了自個兒家的喜兒 —— 通用大廈。
結果草標一插，應者雲集，各路有點錢的主都摩拳擦掌。沒多久，就傳出消息，以波士頓地產為首的買家以28億美金購得通用大廈，雖然低於32億的要價，可還是令大廈身價5年翻了一倍。估計以麥老爹酷愛杠杆的本性，這一棟大廈恐怕賺了絕不止幾倍，隻是老爹真是迫不得已。成交後，麥氏集團購入波士頓地產集團一千萬美金股份，算是對通用大廈還保留一點點象征性的所有權。
此事過後，麥老爹將公司交給兒子打理，悵然退出江湖。
Macklowes Sell G.M. Building for $2.9 Billion
A group led by Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chief executive of Boston Properties, a publicly traded real estate company, is buying the General Motors Building and three other Midtown towers from the financially troubled Macklowe family for $3.95 billion.
The deal, which had been brewing for months as the Macklowes sought to get out from under more than $7 billion in debt, is a victory for Mr. Zuckerman, owner of The Daily News, and his partners, Goldman Sachs and the nations of Qatar and Kuwait, who paid about $2.9 billion for the 50-story, white marble G.M. Building on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street. It is the highest price ever paid for an American office tower.
The sale of the building represents the loss of the crown jewel of the Macklowe real estate empire. The travail of the Macklowes and the fate of the G.M. Building have been closely watched by real estate and banking executives, both for the family drama and as an indication of the health of the real estate market.
The deal was struck about 2 a.m. on Saturday. Hours later, Boston Properties issued a press release announcing its purchase of the G.M. Building as well as 540 Madison Avenue, a 39-story building at 55th Street; 125 West 55th Street, a 23-story building between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue; and 2 Grand Central Tower, a 44-story building between Lexington and Third Avenues.
“We’re thrilled,” Mr. Zuckerman said in a telephone interview. “It is a real commitment to Manhattan and New York City and a real commitment to the future.”
As for the G.M. Building, he said it was a good match for his company’s collection of towers in New York, Washington, San Francisco and elsewhere. “Obviously,” he said, “it’s perhaps the most outstanding building in Manhattan and the country.”
Mr. Zuckerman declined to discuss the partners involved in making the deal. Boston Properties posted a $165 million deposit. The closing is scheduled to take a place over the next several months.
For the Macklowes, it is a bittersweet transaction. Harry Macklowe, a consummate real estate gambler, ruthless negotiator and talented developer, and his son, William S. Macklowe, had struggled for more than six months to find a solution that would allow them to pay off their debts while retaining control of the G.M. Building. But in the end, they had to relinquish the tower, where they had had so much success since they bought it in 2003 for $1.4 billion.
Barry M. Gosin, chief executive of Newmark Knight Frank, a real estate company, said: “It’s a cautionary tale. The market doesn’t always go up. You can’t assume that rents will go up 15 percent a year ad infinitum.”
Fifteen months ago, the Macklowes sought to double the size of their holdings in Midtown by buying seven towers from Equity Office Buildings for $7 billion. But as the subprime mortgage crisis buffeted Wall Street, they found themselves unable to obtain permanent financing and were crushed by $7 billion in short-term, high-interest loans from Deutsche Bank and Fortress Investment Group.
Still, it is remarkable that they could orchestrate a multibillion-dollar deal at a time when the capital markets are in turmoil and rival developers were circling their real estate holdings, hungry for cheap deals. The deal for the G.M. Building and the three others was not without some drama. Vornado Realty Trust and other competitors tried to make higher offers and upend the agreement with Boston Properties.
“We were determined to last five minutes longer than the other side,” Mr. Zuckerman said.
The Macklowes will now be able to pay off a nearly $1.4 billion loan from Fortress and consolidate their remaining real estate holdings.
Peter Briger, co-president of Fortress, said that the company would continue to hold a small note, $150 million, backed by the remaining Macklowe buildings. He said he was pleased with the transaction. “They pulled off a coup in terms of the restructuring and an orderly sale,” Mr. Briger said of the Macklowes. “It could’ve been a very litigious and costly process.”
Earlier this year, the Macklowes relinquished control of the seven towers that led to their troubles. Those building are now up for sale. Harry Macklowe may not make the next Forbes 400 list, but he and his family will continue to be players in the New York real estate world.
“You can never count Harry out,” said the developer Douglas Durst. “The Macklowes will be back.”
They will continue to own four office towers — at 400 Madison Avenue, 610 Broadway, 1330 Avenue of the Americas and one under construction at 510 Madison Avenue — and three residential buildings, including Rivertower, where Harry Macklowe and his wife, Linda, have a duplex penthouse. In addition, the Macklowes will keep a prime development parcel, the former Drake Hotel site at Park Avenue and 56th Street.
“Over all, it’s a net positive outcome,” said William Macklowe, 40. “We still have a premier operating platform. We’ll continue to expand on what we have.”
William Macklowe took the lead in negotiating with Fortress and Boston Properties, assembling a team that included Paul J. Ingrassia, who heads Citigroup’s North American real estate group; Jonathan Mechanic, a real estate lawyer; and Darcy Stacom, the real estate broker from CB Richard Ellis who handled the sale.
“Hindsight gives everyone 20/20 vision,” William Macklowe said. “The ability to harness the past for the future is what makes someone a smarter and better investor.”
William Macklowe has clearly emerged in his own right and will now take the reins of the family company from his father, according to real estate executives who know both men well. Harry Macklowe, who is 71, has always been a fierce competitor, whether it is playing golf, sailing his racing yacht or making deals. He emerged as a developer in the 1980s, when he built the Metropolitan Tower on 57th Street, and what was the Macklowe Hotel in Times Square. Like other developers, he took a drubbing during the recession in the early 1990s, losing several buildings, including the hotel, to lenders.
Mr. Macklowe came roaring back in the mid-1990s with a series of smaller residential and commercial buildings. He ran into trouble with his lenders in 1998 over what was to be his comeback project, a skyscraper at 42nd Street and Madison Avenue.
That was not to be. But in 2003, Mr. Macklowe beat out half a dozen other developers to buy the General Motors Building for what was then a record amount. At the time, many real estate executives said that Mr. Macklowe had overpaid and predicted he would lose the building to his lenders. Instead, his gamble paid off. He designed the glass cubed store for Apple, which has become a popular tourist attraction, and expanded the retail space on the Madison Avenue side of the building.
Like some kind of real estate Icarus, Mr. Macklowe was at the top of his game in early 2007 when he gambled on buying the seven towers, using only $50 million of his own money and $7 billion in debt. It was a time when foreign investors, speculators and developers broke records on a daily basis, seemingly willing to pay anything for Manhattan skyscrapers. Their calculations, as well as those of the lenders, were based not on a building’s current rent roll but on an estimation of how much higher rents would go in the coming years.
“It was an aggressive bet at a time when the financing sources would allow it,” Mr. Briger said. “The market changed. There’s certainly been a transition from an easy money environment to a liquidity crisis and what is quickly becoming a credit crisis.”
