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William Zeckendorf Jr. is searching for a financial angel to help him maintain control of Worldwide Plaza, one of the most important developments built in the boom years of the 1980s.
His partnership--which includes Japanese construction firm Kumagai Gumi, WorldWide Holdings Corp. and New York developer Arthur G. Cohen--has so far been unable to find a deep-pocketed investor to help it buy its $600 million loan from Deutsche Bank.
If the group can't come up with the funds, Deutsche Bank is likely to try to sell the debt before the end of the year. Already, the German bank has hired an adviser and very quietly approached a number of potential buyers.
"(The partnership) would like to buy the mortgage," says Mr. Zeckendorf. "The way it would probably happen would be in partnership with someone else. But Deutsche Bank has the complete right to sell (the mortgage) itself."
Worldwide Plaza is only one of many buildings overleveraged during the 1980s real estate bubble and currently under intense financial pressure. But it is important because of the fanfare with which the mixed-use development went up, because the 1.6 million-square-foot project is now Mr. Zeckendorf's flagship property, and because his company receives substantial management fees.
About six months ago, the Zeckendorf group did line up an...