NEW YORK (AP) — It was the most expensive real estate deal in U.S. history. Now, it's poised to become one of the biggest flops.
At the height of the real estate boom in 2006, an investment group paid $5.4 billion for a gigantic Manhattan apartment complex with mostly rent-regulated apartments.
Now analysts say the group led by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty may be two to three months away from defaulting on its $3 billion mortgage.
The company had pursued a strategy to aggressively convert thousands of rent-regulated apartments at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village into luxury units that would fetch top dollar.
But tenants fought back, conversions happened slower than expected and a state court ruled last week that the company improperly raised the rent for thousands.
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