A joint venture between investment firm Blackstone and asset manager Rialto Capital is the likely winner of nearly $17 billion in commercial real estate loans being auctioned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The commercial real estate loans were once backed by New York City-based Signature Bank, which collapsed in March due to what the regulator chalked up to poor management.
The FDIC has been working to offload billions of dollars in assets once held by Signature, and inked a sale of $16.6 billion capital commitments facilities to PNC last month. The expected sale to Blackstone and Rialto’s joint venture is part of a $33 billion portfolio the FDIC has been looking to offload since September. Not included in the expected sale are billions of dollars in rent-stabilized apartment loans, according to Bloomberg.
The rent-stabilized loans will likely go to a joint venture between asset manager Related Fund Management and the nonprofits Community Preservation Corp. and Neighborhood Restore, which together bid less than 70 cents to the dollar of the loan’s face value, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
Related provided most of the funds for the bid, WSJ said. The nonprofits will help oversee the loans.
Sales in the rent-regulated apartment market in New York City have fallen in recent years because of laws making it harder to raise rents in that segment. Landlord trade group the Community Housing Improvement Program told WSJ that building values of rent-regulated apartments have fallen as much as 70%.
