State lost $250 million on NYC real estate deal

Florida lost $250 million on a 2007 investment in a Manhattan apartment building, the head of the State Board of Administration told the panel overseeing the board this morning.

Peter Cooper Village in NYC is part of the state’s $99.6 billion portfolio that makes up the state’s pension plan.

The state invested $250 million in the apartment complex, where monthly rents range from $2,625 to $8,333, according to the development’s website.

Less than two years later, the value of the investment is zero, Williams told Gov. Charlie Crist, CFO Alex Sink and AG Bill McCollum, who oversee the SBA.

Manhattan apartment rents down as much as 18% in second quarter

Tenants are pressing hard for rent discounts in the troubled Manhattan apartment market and they are getting them, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. Rents have dropped as much as 18% in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, he said. "Unemployment has had a much more immediate impact on the rental market than the purchase market," Miller said. Bloomberg (07/09) ClipSyndicate (07/09)

Rich Russians Returning to U.S. Property Lured by Lower Prices

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Russian millionaires are returning to the U.S. property market, lured by distressed sales and the ruble’s rise against the dollar, lawyer Edward Mermelstein said.

“The way many look at the U.S. right now is that it’s a bargain,” said Mermelstein, who has arranged about 300 real estate deals for buyers from the former Soviet Union since 2007.

Mermelstein, 41, closed two purchases and bid for 20 more residential and commercial properties in New York and Miami for Russian and central Asia clients in the past three months, he said. That compares with no deals or offers in January, he said.

Manhattan taking office rents off 40% in 2Q

Manhattan office taking rents have fallen by as much as 40 percent from the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2009, commercial real estate firm FirstService Williams says in a new report issued today.

While the survey showed average asking rents in Manhattan were down 26 percent quarter-over-quarter, to $58.52 per square foot from $79.39 per square foot, the taking rent fell even more.

"Our measures of taking rents indicate that the average may be down in the range of 35 percent to 40 percent over nearly the same time period," the report says.