By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The future of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is still murky after a Manhattan judge decided he needs more time to decide whether to block a foreclosure sale of the property, throwing next week's planned auction of the buildings into question.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Richard Lowe heard oral arguments Thursday from reps for CW Capital Asset Management and from Pershing Square Capital Management/Winthrop Realty Trust, both of whom have a stake in the property and both of whom want the right to auction it off at a foreclosure sale.
Judge Lowe held off on ruling on the contentious matter, saying he would decide some time in the near future. In the meantime, Lowe said, neither party could move forward with the sale.
"I'm not permitting foreclosure on either side until my decision," Lowe said.
CW Capital, represented in court by Bank of America's lawyers (CW Capital has been acting as a agent for BOA in the Stuy Town deal), had been pushing the court to block any sale by competing creditor Pershing Square, saying they want the right to run the foreclosure auction. If not allowed to do so, they want the judge to force the other side to repay their approximately $3.5 billion dollar debt from the property before secondary creditors are allowed to collect.
Pershing, led by hedge Fund tycoon Bill Ackman, was trying to begin its auction of the Manhattan property as soon as Sept. 8. CW Capital, which acquired the property from Tishman Speyer, was planning to announce its foreclosure auction Friday. It is unclear whether CW Management will hold off on announcing their sale in light of Thursday's hearing, lawyers said at the hearing.
"We are just going to wait for the judge's ruling," said Gregory Cross, a lawyer for Bank of America, which represents CW Capital, "We're confident in our position."
