And the winner? CB Richard Ellis biggest toilet paper purchaser

I will refrain from commenting and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions, but it was revealed at a ULI "Investing and Developing Green" conference that CBRE is champion at least in one regard:

“We buy more toilet paper than anybody in the United States,” said Sally Wilson,
global environmental strategist for the real estate firm

One more mystery, solved.

Back to the drawing board for Worldwide Plaza

The deal to sell Worldwide Plaza to George Comfort and RCG Longview was rejected by Deutschebank and is back on the market.

Apparently the bank has decided not to retain equity in the building, but is still willing to finance the purchaser. New bids are due July 15th.

Lightstone's Extended Stay Hotels files for Bankruptcy

Lightstone Group bought Extended Stay Hotels from Blackstone in 2007 for $8 billion and files for bankruptcy with $7.4 billion in financing amid lower occupancy and room rates. Extended Stay Hotels operates 680 properties in 44 states. According to the filing, the chain is only worth $3.3 billion in the current environment.

Lightstone's David Lichtenstein contributed only $200 million of equity and borrowed a chunk of that for the deal. Under the proposed restructuring, he will avoid personal guarantees and continue to manage the properties.

The largest debt holders of Extended Stay secured debt are Wachovia, Bank of America and Bear Stearns/Blackrock. The filing follows a failure to restructure $3.3 billion of mezzanine debt.

More details at Bloomberg.

Portrait of Billy Macklowe at Real Deal

The Macklowe name has been tough lately and for no one more than Billy Macklowe, heir to the troubles unfolding for Macklowe Properties under his dad, Harry. The Real Deal has a detailed look at how he's been holding up under the pressure.

No doubt, the Macklowe's are survivors and Billy is no exception.

AIG sells to Youngwoo and Kumho Investment Bank

AIG has officially announced the sale of 70 Pine and 27 Wall for under $100 per sq ft or about $140 million to Youngwoo & Associates and Kumho Investment Bank of Korea. AIG will vacate both properties instead of committing to a sale-leaseback as other major corporate sellers like the New York Times have done. Employees will presumably relocate to 180 Maiden Lane where the company subleased 800,000 sf from Goldman Sachs a year ago.

Both buyers are little known, but this purchase marks the beginning of an ambitious strategic investment initiative by the partners. Young Woo is an architect and developer, involved in properties such as 85 Tenth Ave, the Chelsea Arts Tower at West 25ht Street and 200 Eleventh Ave, as well as the telecom data center at 325 Hudson St. Woo and Kumho are also partners in a bid to redevelop Pier 57.

Starwood Property files $500 Million IPO

Barry Sternlicht, who built Starwood Hotels into a top 3 hotel company, is back with Starwood Property Trust according to Bloomberg. Starwood plans a $500 million IPO to take advantage of distressed commercial and residential properties.

Comfort and RCG Longview buy Worldwide Plaza

The last building of Macklowe's bit EOP purchase has been sold, according to Globe St. The buyers are RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons which will put up $175 million of equity and assume $450 million of mortgage debt. Deutsche Bank is taking a large $430 million writedown on its original $880 million mortgage on the property. The property is suffering from a large block of space available due to the departure of Olgivy & Mather, but holds onto anchor tenant Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Little known RCG Longview has raised over $600 million for real estate investment and is jointly controlled by Ramius Capital, a hedge fund, and the Feil Organization, a private owner and manager of residential, retail and commercial real estate in the nation.

More NYC landmarks to be sold

In separate reports, the pace of New York City major property sales continues.

The New York Observer notes that bids for AIG's two buildings at 70 Pine and 72 Wall St were due on May 7. The price appears to be in the $100 psf range for the total 1 mm sq ft and may be an overseas buyer. The sale would be the first downtown Manhattan transaction for over a year.

Meanwhile the New York Post gives an update on the last of Macklowe's EOP purchases, Worldwide Plaza. Struggling with over 600,000 sq ft of vacancy from the departing Olgivy & Mather and the refit of renewing Cravath, lender Deutsche Bank has offered to write down it's principal to lure an equity owner to a recap. Valuation is rumored to be in the $300 psf range, which seems to be the emerging market benchmark for distressed NYC deals.

Fascinating look at Goldman's Whitehall fund

The WSJ has a fascinating look at Goldman's biggest real estate fund, Whitehall Street Global, as it has triggered a $1 billion capital call. The fund has make $3.7 billion in investments since mid-2007 but has already written them down by $2.1 billion. One NYC property in the fund is an interest in the former Helmsley Building at 230 Park Ave.

The capital call is controversial because Goldman offered employees a buyout of their stakes, whereas outside investors have be rewarded with a huge capital call.

The money is required to execute a strategic plan to recover 71% of investors total equity. The killer is that the fund guaranteed $1.4 billion in debt beyond individual property non-recourse loans. Ouch!

Tishman selling 5 California office buildings

According to Bloomberg, a Sydney, Australia based property trust controlled by Tishman Speyer has put three Beverly Hills, one San Francisco and one Orange County building on the market. The fund owns interests in a total of 18 U.S. buildings.

Tishman may be selling these buildings just because they can, rather than because of distress. According to their book valuations, Tishman bought the Beverly Hills buildings for $333 million in 2007, but those buildings combined were recently valued at $344 million.

Properties being marketed include 3 MacArthur Place in Orange County, 550 Terry Francois Blvd in San Francisco and Maple Plaza, 407 North Maple and Beverly Mercedes Place all in Beverly Hills.