Signing Over Deed & Handing Over Keys To Distressed NYC Rental Complex Not As Easy As It Sounds; Proposed Transfer Estimated To Cost $90M In Fees

In New York City, Bloomberg reports:

• Tishman Speyer Properties LP and BlackRock Inc. haven’t handed Manhattan’s biggest apartment complex to creditors as they pledged two weeks ago, in part because of questions over payment of about $90 million in taxes. The companies said Jan. 25 they would cede control of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to lenders after missing a payment on the $3 billion mortgage.

• Even in foreclosure, any property transfer in Manhattan requires payment of city and state taxes, and Tishman is negotiating with CWCapital, the special servicer for the senior debt, over who must pay them, said Rafael Cestero, New York City’s commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development. “The reality is they can’t just turn back the keys,” Cestero said in an interview. “There are some impediments.”

• Under New York law, the party that owns the property and is getting rid of it must pay the taxes on the transfer, according to Owen Stone, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Finance. Otherwise, the burden shifts to the receiver of the property, he said. “CW doesn’t want to pay the $100 million so they’re going to have to negotiate this,” said Cestero, estimating the taxes. “They have not initiated foreclosure proceedings.” Transfer taxes for the city and the state equal 3.025 percent of the “consideration,” or the price of the real property, said Joshua Stein, a partner in the real estate practice group of law firm Latham & Watkins LLP in New York.

For more, see Stuyvesant Town Ownership Hinges on $90 Million Tax.