The Carlyle Group closed Tuesday on the purchase of an interest in the retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue, the tower that Kushner Companies bought last year for a then-record $1.8 billion, according to a source familiar with the deal.

The Carlyle Group—the mammoth private-equity group that manages $82.7 billion in 60 funds worldwide and recently, with Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., bought 650 Madison Avenue for $680 million—is buying in partnership with Stanley Chera’s Crown Acquisitions. The 49 percent stake, as reported by Bloomberg News, in the approximately 90,000-square-foot retail portion, which includes a Brooks Brothers and the NBA Store, is valued in the deal at $525 million.  read more »

There’s something about the West Side of Manhattan that seems fitting for the Carlyle Group. When the buyout firm purchased a parcel of land along Riverside Drive in 2005 with Extell for $1.76 billion it made sense: If a $20 billion Washington firm full of stodgy bankers and investors and former politicians (  read more »

In the suit, Corcoran claimed that the sale of the high rises to Extell and the Carlyle Group last year triggered the payment of the outstanding portion of the $4 million commission that Trump had promised. But Judge Richard Lowe III wrote tha, according to their contract, the commission was only due when Trump sold his share in the Hudson Waterfront partnership, and not when the partnership sold off the land.

Sweet summer swimming? (NYT)

• First the Related Companies brought us a "luxury high line condo" and an Iron Chef. Then came Related's hot-ticket midtown Veneto (plus Le Cirque). Now here's a pretty Hell's Kitchen lake, plus the potential for West Nile, at a vacant Related-owned lot. (New York Times)
• Donald "The Donald"/"The Trump" Trump is officially found "unpersuasive" and "without merit"--at least that's what a state Supreme Court has said about his big West Side lawsuit. The 20 counts of that suit (19 of which have been dismissed) charged his former Hong Kong partners for undervaluing the Riverside South properties, which were sold last year to the Carlyle Group in a record-setting residential land deal. Undervalued? Just like Don. (The Real Deal)
• The Municipal Art Society's Kent Barwick battles it out with ACORN's Bertha Lewis within the hallowed pages of City Limits. Mr. Barwick is against the current plan for Atlantic Yards, and he invokes "justice and equity" to tell us why. In support, Ms. Lewis relies on the old "we don't have the luxury of the word 'should'" argument. (City Limits)
• Who knew DUMBO had been gentrified? The luxurious green hands of Whole Foods will be grabbing up some space across the river--possibly ABC Carpet's old 40,000 square feet at 20 Jay Street. (Curbed)
• The Number 6 is somehow named the best New York subway line for the third year in a row. (The N, aka The Never--get it?--comes in last on account of its infrequency, seat unavailability, dirtiness, etc.) The victorious No. 6, on the other hand, gets a measly "MetroCard Rating" of $1.40: at least the MTA Podcast doesn't cost anything. (Newsday)
- Max Abelson]]> http://www.observer.com/node/34999#comments Real Estate Kent Barwick MTA MetroCard The Carlyle Group LLC The New York Times Company Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:30:00 -0400 Observer Staff 34999 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/node/47670 The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group , by Dan Briody.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/47670#comments O2 Creepy Carlyle Dan Briody Frank Carlucci The Carlyle Group LLC Sun, 08 Jun 2003 20:00:00 -0400 Jonathan A. Knee 47670 at http://www.observer.com