Bank of America has formally taken possession of 222 Broadway, the Swiss Bank Building between Fulton and Ann streets that once belonged to Merrill Lynch.
The bank has no shortage of New York commercial real estate, having just recently taken up residence in its new tower at One Bryant Park, and sources indicate it Read More
When Yeats wrote of a “rough beast” slouching to be born, I doubt he expected that his apocalyptic monster would turn out to be a pig.
Well, it has. And I want blood. I want sausage. And so should anyone whose modest mite has been decimated by the hoggishness of Wall Street and the Read More
It is deliciously ironic that executives whose gargantuan firms fueled the housing crisis are already making some very plum apartment purchases. Lehman’s former head of mortgage banking, Kurt A. Locher, recently spent $5.25 million on West End Avenue, for example, and ex-AIG executive vice president Robert M. Sandler spent $3.45 million at the Hampshire House Read More
With the announcement last week that its top seven executives would forgo annual bonuses for 2008, Goldman Sachs continues to demonstrate why it has always stood out from the rest of Wall Street as a leader that represents the best in capitalism. By giving up tens of millions of dollars in compensation, Goldman’s chief executive, Read More
Down on Wall Street, the word of the hour is “deleveraging.” In the financial markets, deleveraging is a brutal and unpleasant thing, where lots of innocents get badly hurt.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have become plain old-fashioned bank holding companies. Lehman declared bankruptcy. The bull (Merrill) and the Bear (Stearns) have both been Read More
It’s Governor Paterson’s turn for a statement. He chose to lay out the scope of this weekend’s events:
These three firms – Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch – had nearly 30,000 employees in New York, paid roughly 10 percent of Wall Street wages, and approximately 15 percent of all Wall Street bonuses.
20 Read More
Mayor Bloomberg addressed the Wall Street crisis this afternoon, recounting conversations he’s had with executives at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch over possible layoffs: "Greg Fleming, the President and COO of Merrill, and Ken Lewis, the President and CEO of Bank of America, have informed me that they believe jobs losses in the New Read More
The weekend Wall Street crisis will affect New York real estate. Here’s how:
Apartment sales ~ Manhattan recorded over 10,000 home sales in 2007, but sales numbers have been off throughout the city in 2008. In Manhattan in the second quarter, home sales were down 21.8 percent annually, according to a Miller Samuel-Douglas Elliman report. Read More
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Merrill Lynch is in talks once again to move its headquarters to one of Larry Silverstein’s towers at the World Trade Center site, with the Port Authority, which owns the site, expected to discuss the matter at today’s board meeting.
Brookfield Properties seems to be moving along with a renewal with Merrill Lynch at the World Financial Center, which, at least as of last month was likely to mean a five-year lease. On a conference call with investors today, a Brookfield executive said the company was in “active and productive discussions with Merrill,” though Read More
