Connect with us

Published

on

Blackstone defaulted on the $308 million mortgage on a Manhattan office tower more than a year ago — and the debt is now up for sale at a discount of more than 50%.

Special servicer Midland Loan Services was hired by brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to sell Blackstone’s loan, which is backed by 1740 Broadway, a 26-story Art Deco-style tower between 55th and 56th streets, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

JLL has packaged the debt into a commercial mortgage-backed security for $150 million, Bloomberg reported — a 51% discount.

Given the handsome discount the loan is getting, sources told the outlet that the building could be eligible for an office-to-residential conversion.

The skyscraper has been losing value since 2014, when the mortgage was originated and 1740 Broadway was appraised at $605 million, according to loan documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

At the time, Blackstone’s EQ — its US office portfolio company — had just bought the 600,000-square-foot property from real-estate investment trust Vornado. It was reportedly full of tenants paying below-market rents, with a source telling The Post that EQ “overpaid for the building by at least $100 million.”

The debt was sent to special servicing in March 2022, when Blackstone shocked the real-estate world by transferring a $308 million loan on the building.

How could one of the worlds biggest landlords quit on a relatively modest $308 million loan, after they spent a fortune on modernizing the building with a new lobby and restaurant? one observer mused to The Post at the time.

Blackstone ceased funding operating shortfalls at the building and stopped paying the mortgage as of March 2022, according to Bloomberg.

Midland, however, has yet to foreclose on the tower, though it’s unclear why.

We wrote this property off two years ago, and in the event a buyer is identified, we will work collaboratively to transfer the ownership, a Blackstone spokesperson told The Post.

Representatives for Midland Loan Services, JLL and Blackstone did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

As of September 2023, the occupancy at 1740 Broadway was a mere 7.4%, according to capital markets firm GlobalCapital.

The tower is just one of many empty office buildings scattered across New York City, which is in a so-called “urban doom loop” caused by an influx of working from home during the pandemic — a trend that has stuck despite return-to-office mandates.

The doom loop concept is defined by empty office towers, which destroy quality of life and eventually drive residents out.

In the Big Apple, occupancy has only bounced back to 48.4% since the pandemic.

At the start of 2020, however, office occupancy was a strong 90% — before it plummeted to 10% upon the outbreak of COVID-19.

After shouldering a wave of defaults from landlords, banks are sitting on as much as $160 million in losses on loans to the commercial real estate market, according to researchers from Columbia, Stanford, the University of Southern California and Northwestern, per aworking paper publishedby the National Bureau of Economic Research last month.

The grim findings support an earlier calculation by Morgan Stanley that showed lenders would need to negotiate more than $1.5 trillion of their commercial real estate portfolios by the end of 2025 in order to avert defaults.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Gary Lineker says ‘right time’ to leave Match Of The Day as he hints of changes to show’s format

Published

on

By

Gary Lineker says 'right time' to leave Match Of The Day as he hints of changes to show's format

Gary Lineker has said it is “the right time” to leave Match Of The Day and hinted the BBC could change the format of the Premier League highlights show.

The 63-year-old will step down as host at the end of the season and described his time on the show as an “absolute joy and privilege”.

Speaking on his podcast, The Rest Is Football, he said: “It has been an absolute joy and privilege to present such an iconic show for the BBC.

“But all things have to come to an end.”

Lineker went on to say the broadcaster enters a new three-year deal to host top-flight highlights, and that to stay on for another 12 months “would be a bit weird”.

“I think the next contract they’re looking to do Match Of The Day slightly differently, so I think it makes sense for someone else to take the helm.

“I bowed out in my football career when I felt it was the right time. I feel this is now the right time.”

More on Gary Lineker

Lineker refused to speculate who would be taking his place, as rumours grew around Mark Chapman, the regular Match Of The Day 2 presenter, Football Focus host Alex Scott, and BBC sports coverage presenter Gabby Logan.

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈

“Obviously I don’t know who it’ll be, and I would never tell publicly my preference, I don’t think that’d be the right thing to do – but whoever it is, I would say be yourself,” he said.

“I had to fill the ginormous shoes of certain Des Lynam.

“…I would say just be yourself and enjoy it, it’s a wonderful programme to be a part of. It was brilliant before I took over, and it will be brilliant after I leave.”

Lineker pictured with former MOTD host Des Lynam in 2009. Pic: PA
Image:
Lineker pictured with former MOTD host Des Lynam in 2009. Pic: PA

Lineker has hosted Match Of The Day since 1999 and will have presented the show for more than a quarter of a century when he leaves in May 2025.

Read more:
Girl killed on M5 getting out of police car named
Vaccine sceptic chosen as Trump’s health secretary

He will continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast alongside his podcast, which also features BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

The former England striker has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years and was estimated to have earned £1.35m in the year 2023/24.

The BBC said future plans for Match Of The Day would be “announced in due course”.

Continue Reading

Business

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

on

By

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the quarter.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers,” she said in response to the figures.

“At my budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.

“Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal,” Ms Reeves added.

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector

The UK’s GDP for the the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.

Continue Reading

US

RFK Jr chosen as Donald Trump’s health secretary – as president-elect says he will do ‘unbelievable things’

Published

on

By

RFK Jr chosen as Donald Trump's health secretary - as president-elect says he will do 'unbelievable things'

Donald Trump has chosen vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr as his new health secretary and said he will do “unbelievable things”.

The news was announced by Donald Trump Jr on X, before the president-elect confirmed the appointment just moments later.

Former Democrat RFK Jr, the nephew of former president John F Kennedy, had been running as an independent presidential candidate but dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr Trump in August.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

From August: Kennedy family criticises RFK Jr after Trump endorsement

In return for Mr Kennedy’s support during the election, president-elect Trump pledged to give him a “big role” – and RFK Jr’s preference for the health position was widely reported.

Mr Trump spoke on Thursday night at a gala, hosted at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, which included tech billionaire Elon Musk and actor Sylvester Stallone.

Directly addressing RFK Jr, who was in the audience, Mr Trump said: “We want you to come up with things… and ideas… and what you’ve been talking about for a long time. I think you’re going to do some unbelievable things. Nobody’s going to be able to do it like you.”

The health and human services (HHS) department includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare, Medicaid and the National Institutes of Health.

RFK Jr will “restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again,” the president-elect wrote on X.

Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr in October during the presidential campaign. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr in October during the presidential campaign. Pic: Reuters

Mr Trump added: “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.

“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration.”

Mr Kennedy is a known vaccine sceptic who has repeated misinformation on multiple occasions, including the discredited theory that childhood immunisations cause autism.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

The RFK Jr-led health department will “play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” the president-elect added.

Earlier, his son Donald Trump Jr was the first to confirm the appointment, writing on X: “Robert F Kennedy Jr will be The Secretary of Health and Human Services! Promises Made Promises Kept.”

Read more:
Who’s in and who’s out of Trump’s top team?
Who is Robert F Kennedy Jr?

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

When Trump met Obama and Biden

RFK Jr’s position will need to be confirmed with a Senate vote – but even with the chamber under Republican control, his appointment may face opposition because of his views on health issues.

Before Mr Trump announced his choice, Mr Kennedy had already claimed the new president would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office. The addition of the compound has been cited as helping to improve dental health.

The department RKF Jr is hoping to oversee has more than 80,000 employees across the United States.

Continue Reading

Trending