real estate

WeWork seeks bankruptcy protection in stunning fall for a company once valued close to $50 billion

NEW YORK (AP) — WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a stunning fall for the office-sharing company that once promised to upend the way people went to work around the world.

The filing comes at a time of incredible disruption in the commercial real estate market. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in vacancies and major markets, from New York to San Francisco, are still struggling.

But it was an aggressive expansion in WeWork’s early years, that led to the bulk of its current troubles. The company went public in October 2021 after an attempt two years earlier collapsed spectacularly. The debacle led to the ouster of founder and CEO Adam Neumann, whose erratic behavior and exorbitant spending spooked early investors.

Despite efforts to turn the company around since Neumann’s departure — including significant cuts to operating costs and rising revenue — WeWork has struggled in a commercial real estate market that has been rocked by the rising cost of borrowing money, as well as a shifting dynamic for millions of office workers now checking into work remotely.

“I feel like (WeWork) has been imploding in slow motion,” said Nicole Schmidt, an attorney and managing

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November 8, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Five questions ahead of decisive Yellow bankruptcy hearing

Executives, attorneys, creditors, and many others invested in the wind-down of Yellow Corp. will gather Sept. 15 for a key hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that should answer several questions about how the shuttered carrier’s case and auctions of substantial assets will proceed in the coming weeks.

The hearing could add clarity to some important questions in Yellow’s filing and perhaps reveal bidders who haven’t yet gone public with their interest in what remains of the almost 100-year-old company.

Here’s the latest on the Chapter 11 case for what was, until last month, the No. 6 carrier on the 2023 for-hire FleetOwner 500:

  • The Sept. 15 hearing is slated to cover a lot of ground. Among the most important items before Judge Craig T. Goldblatt is final approval of the $142 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing Yellow has secured from hedge funds Citadel and MFN Partners (the latter being Yellow’s largest shareholder, having amassed a 42% stake this summer) as well as the procedures that will govern the auction of the defunct company’s assets planned for next month.
  • Also on the provisional agenda is finalization of a motion, preliminarily approved by Goldblatt on Sept. 8, to make about
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September 19, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Bankruptcy Attorneys Question News-Press Owner Wendy McCaw About Assets, Property Transfers | Local News

Attorneys questioned Santa Barbara News-Press owner Wendy McCaw for two hours at a Thursday bankruptcy hearing, and dug into the business’ operations and the assets claimed in court documents.

McCaw’s Ampersand Publishing, parent company of the News-Press, declared bankruptcy on July 21, the same day the newspaper stopped publishing to its website and told all employes their jobs were eliminated.

The bankruptcy documents list few assets and more than $5 million owed to creditors such as former employees, vendors, utility companies, local businesses, and subscribers.

The assets conspicuously exclude real estate because McCaw transferred the business’ properties in 2014 to separate limited liability companies she controls, and apparently paid nothing to do so.

Those properties include the downtown Santa Barbara News-Press building at 715 Anacapa St., a parking lot across the street, and the newspaper’s Goleta printing press property at 725 S. Kellogg Ave.

McCaw said Thursday that the News-Press had no lease agreements and paid no rent to occupy the buildings, even after Ampersand Publishing no longer owned the properties.

The section of bankruptcy documents where leases would be is blank.

“With nothing listed there, I have questions,” said attorney Michael D’Alba of Danning Gill.

Bankruptcy trustee Jerry Namba,

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September 8, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Moskovits, Lichtenstein Lose Stake in Williamsburg Apartments
From left: Hutton Capital's Ron Friedman, BridgeCity’s Allan Lebovits, Toby Moskovits, and Heritage Partners' Michael Lichtenstein along with 225-227 Grand Street in Brooklyn (Getty, Google Maps, Hutton Capital, BridgeCity, Heritage Partners)

From left: Hutton Capital’s Ron Friedman, BridgeCity’s Allan Lebovits, Toby Moskovits, and Heritage Partners’ Michael Lichtenstein along with 225-227 Grand Street in Brooklyn (Getty, Google Maps, Hutton Capital, BridgeCity, Heritage Partners)

The apartment and retail building at 225-227 Grand Street in Williamsburg cemented Toby Moskovits’ rise as a Brooklyn developer. Now it could represent her fall.

The 41-unit property has been sold at a bankruptcy auction to the sole bidder: its mezzanine lender, an entity that includes Hutton Capital’s Ron Friedman, Rosewood Realty’s Aaron Jungreis and BridgeCity Capital’s Allan Lebovits.

It’s the latest sign of trouble for Moskovits and business partner Michael Lichtenstein, who lost control of the nearby Williamsburg Hotel to a trustee in June as part of a separate bankruptcy.

The saga of 227 Grand Street involves some of the biggest players in Brooklyn real estate.

A decade ago, Moskovits’ firm tapped prolific architect Karl Fisher to design the building, whose oversized black windows, red brick facade and expansive rooftop symbolized Williamsburg’s cool industrial aesthetic at a time when the neighborhood was still evolving into a haven for well-to-do millennials.

In 2011, Moskovits turned to up and coming Brooklyn landlord Yoel Goldman to invest in the project,

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October 22, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Why You Should Become a Board-Certified Lawyer

The Florida Bar reports there over 93,000 lawyers eligible to practice law. Demand for legal services is on the rise as droves of out-of-state consumers and their businesses relocate to Florida. To meet this demand, law firms have aggressively been recruiting lawyers particularly in specialty areas such as real estate, construction and corporate law. In the wake of these developments, lawyers can best position themselves to achieve success by becoming a board-certified specialist.

Board certification is administered by eight national private organizations with eighteen certification programs accredited by the American Bar Association. These private certification programs include specialty areas in bankruptcy, criminal trial advocacy, patent litigation, and complex litigation. Many state bar associations also administer board certification programs. For example, Florida has the largest number of certification specialty areas, at 27, which range from marital and family law to criminal law, construction, real estate, and workers’ compensation. Board certification is Florida’s official, independent determination of a lawyer’s expertise to practice in a specialty area of law. As noted on its website, “It is the gold standard for Florida lawyers, representing a recognition by a lawyer’s peers that they have attained a level of professional expertise in their chosen field.”

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September 16, 2022 by ATTORNEY
May 2024
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