Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2011
In the Midtown offices of the Lark Play Development Center on Tuesday, the playwright Sandi Goff Farkas was awarded the first ever Lark Risktaker Award for her creation of the Playwrights of New York (Pony) Fellowship. Pony supports emerging playwrights with a monthly stipend and the use of an apartment for a year.
Katori Hall, a Pony recipient whose play “The Mountaintop” started at the Lark in 2007 and opens on Broadway on Thursday, was on hand to give Ms. Goff Farkas her award. She neighed at the presentation of a glass pony and described the benefactor as “the most gorgeous woman with legs as tall as skyscrapers. I was like, ‘What is this woman doing helping the Lark?'”
Ms. Goff Farkas, who writes plays and screenplays “about business people and their family dynamics,” said she created Pony because she saw the pull of Hollywood over New York for young writers. “I witnessed a lot of great plays not get written,” she said. She asked her husband, Andrew Farkas, the CEO of Island Capital Group, to buy an apartment, “and he did,” and asked 12 friends for $2,500 each “to support a playwright for a month.” She thanked everyone “who ponied up here” for the evening and “my own patron,” i.e. Andrew Farkas, “who puts me in a nice apartment. I get a stipend and he gives me support in every category.”
Read the full article on The Wall Street Journal.
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Posted by admin on Oct 13, 2011
JER Investors Trust Inc. (“JERIT”) today summarized for its shareholders the following recent developments:
— The New Manager is an indirect subsidiary of C-III Capital Partners LLC (“C-III”). Joseph Lytle, Robert Phillips and Jenna Unell are employees of C-III. Lawrence Block, William Jarrard and Yvonne Owens are employees of Island Capital Group LLC, which indirectly controls C-III. More information about C-III is provided below.
— These changes to JERIT’s management were effected in connection with a transaction in which C-III purchased the commercial real estate special servicing and collateralized debt obligation (“CDO”) management businesses previously operated by J.E. Robert Company, Inc. (“JER”) and its affiliates. As a result of that transaction, affiliates of C-III have taken over the special servicing (previously performed by JER) of loans collateralizing various commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) owned by two subsidiaries of JERIT that have issued CDOs, as well as collateral administration of those CDO entities.
Read the full press release on Market Watch.
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Posted by admin on Oct 6, 2011
Fitch Ratings affirms C-III Asset Management LLC commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) primary servicer rating at ‘CPS2-‘ and its special servicer rating at ‘CSS1-‘.
On Aug. 30, 2011, C-III Capital Partners LLC (C-III) announced that it had acquired the special servicing and CDO management businesses of JER Partners (JER), a private real estate investment management company. JER was the named special servicer for $35.5 billion of commercial real estate loans, of which approximately $4 billion is currently in special servicing and under active management.
C-III will merge JER’s special servicing operations into its wholly owned subsidiary, C-III Asset Management LLC, which is a special servicer of commercial real estate loans. With the acquisition, C-III is now the named special servicer for approximately 14,000 loans with an aggregate balance in excess of $152 billion, of which approximately $17 billion is currently in special servicing.
Fitch has affirmed the following ratings:
CIII –Special servicer rating at ‘CSS1-‘; –Primary servicer rating at ‘CPS2-‘.
Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com.
Andrew Farkas is the CEO of C-III Capital Partners.
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