Preparing for an Uncertain Future

Abstract

This chapter discusses the report of the Wall Street Journal about Stuyvesant Town, one of the biggest, most high-profile deals of the commercial real-estate boom, being in danger of imminent default. It explains how Tishman Speyer was stuck at $139 million rather than raising the net operating income up to $252 million by 2009, which MetLife had promised could be done. It also mentions RealPoint LLC, a credit-rating agency that estimated the property to only be worth $2.1 billion — less than half the purchase price from the time it has been purchased in 2006. The chapter focuses on the impacts of the recession to Tishman Speyer and all owners of real-estate, which had been precipitated by a collapse in the inflated housing market. It refers to apartment prices in Manhattan that had fallen sharply as 2009 wore on and prices that went down by 25 percent compared to 2008.