L&L/Prudential JV Will Look for Discounts

NEW YORK CITY-The softening of asset prices offers investors opportunities to find bargains even as the debt crunch makes it more of a challenge to obtain financing. Against the backdrop of these factors, locally based L&L Holding Co. is partnering with Prudential Real Estate Investors in a programmatic joint venture to acquire up to $4 billion worth of office properties at discounted prices, mainly in New York City.

“With less senior debt available in the market, there now exists a great opportunity for PREI and L&L to acquire assets in New York, as those with captive equity will have an advantage in today’s market,” says Steven Kohn, president and principal of Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick-Goldman, in a prepared release. CWSG arranged the JV, which L&L president David Levinson tells GlobeSt.com is his company’s first programmatic deal, “as opposed to individual, stand-alone transactions with our other institutional partners.”

L&L’s JV partners in previous transactions have included Blackrock Realty, Zurich Global, Lehman Bros., Morgan Stanley, the Carlyle Group and GE Asset Management. With GE in particular, L&L made the $212-million purchase of 600 Third Ave. in September 2004 and the $450-million purchase of 2 Park Ave. in September 2006, selling the 29-story office tower three months later for $750 million to a Morgan Stanley fund.