Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

The Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association announced today that it has retained the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP to provide counsel that will help the TA meet its goals of preserving the property’s long-term affordability and ensuring adequate maintenance.

Paul, Weiss is widely recognized as one of the top law firms in the country, with robust real estate and restructuring practices—expertise the TA is seeking for the upcoming complex negotiations over the future ownership and management of ST/PCV.

“This is a firm that is second to none, and we are proud to have them on our team,” said Al Doyle, president of the Tenants Association.  “If anyone thought the tenants were not a force to be reckoned with at the bargaining table, they will now realize that we are serious, we are organized, and we have the resources we need to determine our own destiny in this process and ensure we are treated fairly.”

The TA selected Paul Weiss because of its experience in some of the most significant and complicated real estate transactions and restructurings of recent times.  It has represented major creditor groups and other parties in the chapter 11 reorganizations cases of Lehman Brothers, General Motors Corporation, GMAC, Charter Communications, CIT, the New York Racing Association and Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest investor-owned public utility and the largest public utility in U.S. history to file for chapter 11 relief.  Paul Weiss’s real estate practice includes the representation of private and governmental clients in the proposed sale and development of MTA’s West Side Railyards and Atlantic Yards, the lease and redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, the financing for the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle and the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, and the acquisition, sale, development and financing of thousands of units of housing and millions of square feet of office and commercial space in New York City and around the globe. The firm also represented the Miami Heat basketball team in the development of the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami and the Government of Hong Kong in the development of Hong Kong Disneyland.

“We are honored to represent the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association in this matter,” said Meredith J. Kane, a partner in the Paul Weiss real estate department.  “We believe that the tenants are the key to a successful solution to the ownership of this iconic housing complex—and we are looking forward to helping them achieve their goals.”

The sale of ST/PCV in 2006 was the largest real estate transaction in American history.  The deal’s collapse last month and speculation about the property’s future has been a major focus of the business and real estate media.

Paul, Weiss will represent the TA without seeking compensation from tenants.

“They’re putting themselves on the line for us because they believe, as we do, that the tenants are the future of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village,” Doyle said.