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Page 4 CRAIN’S BUSINESS March 10, 2014 N.Y. firm’s ownership of Southfield Town Center expected to be brief

BY KIRK PINHO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

New York City-based real estate investment firm 601W Cos. is poised to make the largest office purchase in the Detroit market this decade when it closes on its planned $177.5 million purchase of the Southfield Town Center. While the small, four-employee company’s principals say they are optimistic about the office market, don’t expect a long- term relationship. The Southfield Town Center isn’t likely to belong to its new owner for much more than five years, said a principal of probable buyer 601W Cos. The company’s ownership of the landmark Class A complex north GlobalHue Inc., with 109,000 square The investors are buying all five of 10 Mile Road between M-10 and feet; Fifth Third Bank, 106,000 square office towers at the complex but not Evergreen Road is not likely to last feet; and AlixPartners LLP, 63,000 the 5000 Town Center residential beyond about five years. square feet, according to Washing- tower or the Westin Southfield Detroit. That’s par for the course, said ton, D.C.-based real estate infor- Educated as attorneys, Silber- Mark Karasick, principal of 601W, mation service CoStar Group Inc. berg and Victor Gerstein are prin- which has 14 million square feet of The average rents at the 1000 and cipals of 601W. Karasick said he commercial real estate under own- 2000 towers of the Town Center are has 20 years of real estate acquisi- ership or management across the $22.90 per square foot. The average tion experience, beginning his ca- country in major cities like New CAR BREAKFAST BRIEFING rents at 3000, 4000 and 4400 Town reer acquiring property that was York, Washington, D.C., and Chica- Center are $21.90 per square foot. go. About half of the 601W portfolio See Next Page (the company name comes from the headquarters street address on West 26th Street) is in the Windy City, according to fellow principal your Michael Silberberg. EARN “We like to take an asset where REGISTER TODAY www.cargroup.org either the market, the asset itself BUSINESS DEGREE at or the area is in decline but where we feel there is a future opportuni- Schoolcraft College Advanced Information Technology ty,” Karasick said. For example, the company pur- Solutions: An Engine of Innovation chased the 2.3 million-square-foot Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York for $151.5 million in 1998, revi- Tuesday, March 25, 2014 talized it and sold it after 13 years for $920 million. The Starrett-Lehigh, 8–11:30 a.m. • Plymouth, Mich. constructed in the late 1920s, was an “old war horse-type” building on the west edge of Manhattan with rents at SPONSORED BY: $5 per square foot. When it was sold in 2011, rents were in the $40 range per square foot. “We sold it and made a beautiful profit,” Karasick said. It also made $90 million selling a 1.6 million-square-foot building on West Chicago Avenue in Chicago after purchasing it for $300 mil- lion. In addition, it purchased a 331,000-square-foot building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washing- Exceptional Leadership. ton, D.C., for $156.4 million and then sold it for $220 million. Expect the same strategy for the At Schoolcraft we offer an Associate in Business Delivered. 2.2 million-square-foot Southfield Administration (ABA) degree that is designed to Town Center, for which 601W has provide the framework needed for transfer to a renovation budget of at least $30 million for features like lobby up- a four-year college or university to pursue a grades, parking infrastructure and bachelor’s degree in business. elevators. Some of that budget will Michigan’s also be used for build-out incen- Our Schoolcraft to U partnership with Wayne State tives to attract tenants, Karasick Premier said. The complex is 32 percent va- University, beginning Fall 2014, will provide you Retained cant, according to Bloomberg LP. with the opportunity to earn your bachelor’s or “We are looking to get the occu- master’s degree in business administration at our pancy to the mid- to upper 80s over Executive a five-year period,” Karasick said. main Schoolcraft College campus in Livonia. “We don’t think it’s going to hap- Search Firm pen overnight.” One of the complex’s draws was that no tenants take up more than Over 100 years 5 percent of its total square of combined footage, meaning that if a large experience. tenant “goes dark,” there wouldn’t For more information visit LLC be a large impact on the complex, Karasick said. www.schoolcraft.edu | 734-462-4426 International Executive Search “You can’t be hurt too badly by Tel: +1.248.645.1551 • www.huntergroup.com any one tenant,” Karasick said. The largest tenants are 20140310-NEWS--0004,0005-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 3/7/2014 5:59 PM Page 2

March 10, 2014 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Page 5

TIME TO NOMINATE COOL WORKPLACES 3 found guilty in $70 million scheme Crain’s biennial Cool Places to Work in Michigan awards returns this year, and Crain’s again is working with Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa. The competition has two parts: one questionnaire for to defraud Medicare, Medicaid employers, another for employees. The combined, weighted results will determine who qualifies. Best Companies supplies participating companies — substances and conspiracy to pay or surers for expensive medications BY CHAD HALCOM regardless of whether they win the Cool Places recognition CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS receive health care kickbacks. he never dispensed and for drugs — with a report based on employee responses to the 72- 2014 Jurors convicted Khunt on six with street value like Vicodin that question survey. The report can help executives identify A pharmacist, a doctor and a pa- counts — conspiracy to commit were resold by marketers on the strengths and weaknesses in their company culture and practices. tient recruiter all walked into a health care fraud, conspiracy to street market. Thoran was accused To be considered for Cool Places to Work in Michigan, companies must federal courtroom Friday morning distribute controlled substances, of acting as a patient recruiter in register at coolplacestoworkmi.com by April 18. Other important dates, and learned they could soon move and two counts each of health care the scheme, and Fowler was a samples of the surveys and other information are on the website. on to prison, after a jury convicted fraud and distributing controlled physician who allegedly received Once registered, companies will be invited to participate in the surveys. the trio of multiple felonies in a substances — but could not agree bribes and kickbacks from conspir- Businesses and nonprofits can apply. Applicants must have a minimum far-flung $70 million Medicare and on a seventh count involving kick- acy ringleader Babubhai Patel to re- of 15 employees working in Michigan and have been in business at least Medicaid fraud scheme. back payments. fer prescriptions. one year, among other criteria. Jurors took about five days in de- Federal prosecutors contend Patel, who was convicted at a sep- Companies pay a fee based on company size to Best Companies to liberation to return guilty verdicts Khunt, a pharmacist, billed arate 2012 trial in the same case, is cover survey costs. The cost ranges from $610 to $895 for online against Carl Fowler of West Bloom- Medicare, Medicaid and private in- serving 17 years in federal prison. surveying, and $765 to $1,660 for paper surveying. field, Michael Thoran of Detroit and Mukesh Khunt of Toronto of a combined 12 charges after they stood trial together before U.S. Dis- trict Judge Arthur Tarnow. All three were part of a larger al- leged conspiracy involving a net- work of more than 20 pharmacies and 39 defendants including vari- ous medical doctors in accused of billing $70.9 million to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, under a 2011 indictment. Fowler and Thoran were each convicted Friday on all three charges they faced in court: conspir- acy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to distribute controlled

From Previous Page in default along Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Harry Skydell is the company’s director of leasing and acquisitions. The Town Center is selling after a mortgage default as well. According to commercial mort- gage-backed securities data from Bloomberg, current owner Black- stone Group LP is unable to pay the balance due on a $235 million mort- gage on the property originated in 2004 by Irving, Calif.-based Green- wich Capital Financial Products Inc. The loan was transferred to Wells Fargo Bank NA for special servicing. A loan modification letter origi- nally stipulated that Blackstone pay the balance by Nov. 5, 2012. The complex was appraised last sum- mer at $177.5 million, 45 percent be- low a 2004 appraisal of $321 million, according to Bloomberg loan data. The sale to 601W is expected to close by the beginning of May. Pittsburgh-based HFF Inc. is mar- keting the complex and hired South- field-based NAI Farbman to represent Blackstone locally in the sale. The Southfield office of CBRE Inc. is re- sponsible for leasing the property. Among large office complexes in metro Detroit, the Southfield Town Center, built in 1975, is sec- ond in square footage only to the 5.5 million-square-foot in total size. Paul Choukourian, managing director of the Southfield office of Colliers International Inc., called 601W’s planned purchase a posi- tive sign for the market. “It’s another tremendous sign when out-of-state money is inter- ested in Detroit,” Choukourian said. “For these guys to come and invest a substantial amount of money in Southfield, hopefully more investors will take note.” Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, [email protected]. Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB