FAcE VALUE
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EMPIRE
BUILDING
An appraiser in NYC takes on
a $1 billion conversion venture
IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT
APPRAISERS GET A
CHANCE to become involved
with the purchase of $1 billion
worth of new condominium build-
ings for conversion into rental
apartments; usually investors and developers
alone lead the charge. However, based on his
reputation for analytics in the New York City
metropolitan area and the fact that his firm
appraised deals valued at over $5 trillion last
year, Associate member Jonathan Miller was
recruited for just such a venture.
When boutique investment bank West-
wood Capital was looking for partners in its
de-conversion venture, it approached Miller based
on his well-known quarterly Market Overview
reports. Produced since 1994, the reports — avail-
able at www.millersamuel.com/reports/ — cover
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and
Hamptons/North Fork.
What Westwood saw in the reports was not
just analysis, but also neutrality, a rarity in the
residential real estate reporting arena, according
to Miller.
To round out its venture, Westwood approached
veteran apartment building owner and manager
Gerald Guterman, who started his real estate
career working as a night porter for Donald
Trump’s father, Fred. In the 1980s, Guterman, now
By Heather
Norgaard,
Appraisal
Institute
marketing
specialist
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Miller
Associate member Jonathan Miller, an appraiser for Miller Samuel, is the author of the New York firm’s quarterly Market Overview reports.
66, collected a portfolio of investments that turned
him into one of the largest property managers in
the United States. Fittingly, it included more than
60,000 apartments (in more than 200 communities
nationwide). The portfolio also included 16,000
rental apartments converted to condominium
ownership, a trend the trio now will be reversing
in their $1 billion venture.
“I saw this partnership as an opportunity to
leverage my valuation expertise and to take advantage of my understanding of changes in market
conditions that came about [as a result of the]
‘post-Lehman tipping point’ in September 2008,”
says Miller, who had no prior relationship with
either entity.
