In perhaps the ultimate sign that the burst of the real estate bubble has reached “historic” proportions, Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, the financially troubled owners of New York’s legendary Stuyvesant Town, said today that they’re turning the massive apartment complex back to the Indians, who originally sold it to the Dutch almost 400 years ago.
A major part of the problem was that the New York courts had refused to overturn the rent regulations that had been in effect since the 17th Century, which allowed occupants of three-bedroom duplexes with East River views to pay a monthly rent of only $24 in trinkets.
In addition, BlackRock’s plans to convert these rent-regulated apartments into luxury condos hit an even bigger rock, given the current plight of middle-class families unable to afford even the meal of corn enjoyed by the original tenants – even during the Great Recession of 1659, which had been brought on by the collapse of toxic stockpiles of “corn derivatives.”
The new owners indicated that the rental properties might now be turned into a giant gambling casino, which would be financed not by a traditional mortgage, but by securitized slot machines, backed by collateralized fruit.
On CNBC, Jim Cramer commented that he was “sitting bullish” about the deal, and that in addition to the gaming industry, he was optimistic that this deal would even be able to resuscitate “Running Bear Stearns.”
 
