By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
STUYVESANT TOWN — The company currently in control of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to block a new partnership from making a play to take over the properties.
Hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. teamed up with the Boston-based Winthrop Realty Trust last week to scoop up $300 million in mezzanine loans on the property, paying just $45 million for the debt.
CW Capital, an asset company representing creditors who took over the complex when its previous owner defaulted on its mortgage, reportedly filed a suit in state Supreme Court to stop the partnership’s effort to foreclose on the 11,227-apartment complex. The suit argues that the joint venture needs to first pay off the properties’ initial mortgage, or some $3.7 billion, the New York Times reported.
It has been speculated that CW Capital would hold its own foreclosure Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village sometime in September, the Times added.
In a statement last week, the partnership between Pershing and Winthrop said it intended to complete an “affordable” co-op conversion of the properties.
The Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association responded that it is “willing to evaluate any proposal and work with any party who shares our goals and who seeks to reach a restructuring that is in the best interest of all concerned, especially the residents who make this community the valuable asset that it is for our city,” according to a statement.
The 56-building complex — which stretch along the East Side between 14th and 23rd streets, from First Avenue to the East River — currently houses about 25,000 rent-regulated and market-rate renters.