Could this be the man?.....
Read on, from NY Observer, Eliot Brown reporting:
It was something to be avoided. As America’s biggest foreclosure waiting to happen, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village was viewed by the financial world as a $6.3 billion bet gone bad.
David Tepper saw an opportunity.
Founder of the high-risk–high-yield hedge fund Appaloosa Management, Mr. Tepper is the king of sniffing out the undervalued among the distressed, often realizing fantastic returns. After betting big on banks at their nadir in early 2009, he topped AR: Absolute Return + Alpha magazine’s list of the year’s top hedge fund earners, raking in an estimated $4 billion for himself.
Now, after buying more than $800 million worth of bonds that control Stuyvesant Town within the past year and a half—many of them risky—he is muddying up the giant foreclosure on the property, showing that he has no interest in watching from the sidelines. In late February, he filed legal action to steer the property in a new direction, in a bid to protect—or maximize—his investment, an action being fought by the special servicer organizing the foreclosure....
Mr. Tepper’s aim, of course, is transparent: He simply wants the value of Stuyvesant Town to return to at least $3 billion, the initial value of the mortgage. That way, he can realize a maximum return on his investments.
The best solution, he said, is for the tenants to buy it themselves—a plan they are pursuing—as they have the ability to pay more given that the apartments could quickly be converted to condos or co-ops.
Mr. Tepper’s advice to the tenants: Act fast, as the markets are improving.
“Nothing would make me happier than to see 11,000 new homeowners, if the first mortgage is paid,” he said. “The way things are going and the way things are improving, I hope they act fast for their sake.”
Full article here.
