Starwood Close to Acquiring Corus Assets
And so the next chapter unfolds for the Montage. According to a New York Times blog post, The Starwood Capital Group, the real estate investment firm run by Barry Sternlicht, is close to a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to purchase the assets of Corus Bank.
According to the post, in addition to contributing capital for the purchase, Starwood plans to manage several foreclosed or soon-to-be owned residential and office buildings seized by Corus after their borrowers defaulted. Could the Montage be one of these? The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, these people said. Private equity firms W.L. Ross & Company, TPG and at least two others are also contributing cash to the deal.
It’s unclear how much the group is paying for the assets, which are said to have a face value of about $5 billion. A Starwood spokesman declined to comment. As part of the deal, the F.D.I.C. is plans to take an equity stake in the venture and provide financing.
Corus was seized by the F.D.I.C. last month and its $6.6 billion in deposits were assumed by MB Financial. If the deal with Starwood goes through, the company will have beaten some big-time real estate investors including Thomas J. Barrack of Colony Capital; Jay Sugarman of iStar Financial; the New York developer Stephen M. Ross; and Lubert-Adler, a big property investor in Philadelphia.