Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group

A summary of what happened?

The Sports Illustrated Building, located at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, has become emblematic of the challenges facing the commercial real estate sector, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This 23-story, 925,000-square-foot office tower, once bustling with tenants like Sports Illustrated and Zales, has experienced a dramatic decline in value, culminating in a significant financial setback for its owner, UBS Group.

Acquisition and Financial Trajectory

• 2006 Acquisition: An investment fund managed by UBS Realty Investors acquired the building for $332 million. At that time, the property was nearly fully occupied, reflecting the robust demand for office space in Manhattan.
• Land Purchase and Subsequent Sale: In 2012, UBS purchased the land beneath the building for $279 million. Seven years later, in 2019, the land was sold to Safehold, a company specializing in ground leases, for $285 million. Concurrently, UBS entered into a long-term ground lease with Safehold to maintain control over the building.
• Renovations: UBS invested approximately $76 million in renovations, completed in early 2021, aiming to modernize the aging structure and attract new tenants.

Decline in Occupancy and Value

• Occupancy Rates: Post-renovation, the building’s occupancy stood at about 40%. However, as the pandemic accelerated remote work trends, occupancy further declined to 35%, significantly impacting rental income.
• Financial Losses: In July 2024, UBS sold the building via an online auction on Ten-X for a mere $8.5 million, representing a staggering 97.5% loss from its original purchase price. This sale underscores the severe depreciation of older office properties in the current market.

Market Implications

• Commercial Real Estate Challenges: The precipitous drop in the building’s value highlights the broader struggles within the commercial real estate market, especially for older office buildings that may not meet modern tenants’ expectations.
• Investor Concerns: UBS’s substantial loss on this property has raised concerns among investors and industry observers about the firm’s investment strategies and risk management practices in the real estate sector.

The financial trajectory of the Sports Illustrated Building serves as a cautionary tale of the vulnerabilities in the commercial real estate market. For UBS Group, the significant losses incurred from this investment have prompted scrutiny regarding their asset management decisions and the broader health of the office property market in a rapidly evolving work environment.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan - UBS Group trying to hide?

Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: The Sports Illustrated Building and UBS Group – A Story of Decline in Manhattan Real Estate

Introduction

The Sports Illustrated Building, a 23-story commercial office tower located at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, was once a prime asset in the New York City real estate market. Acquired by UBS Realty Investors in 2006, the property represented a robust investment in a thriving market. However, a combination of market shifts, mismanagement, and broader commercial real estate struggles culminated in its catastrophic devaluation. This report examines the series of events, decisions, and market conditions that led to one of the most striking examples of losses in the Manhattan commercial real estate sector.

1. The Acquisition and Early Promise

2006 Purchase

• UBS Realty Investors purchased the Sports Illustrated Building for $332 million, a price reflective of its prestigious location and high occupancy at the time.
• Tenants included prominent companies such as Sports Illustrated and Zales, ensuring a steady income stream for the property.

2012 Land Acquisition

• UBS purchased the land beneath the building for $279 million to gain full control of the asset. This move was perceived as a long-term strategy to consolidate ownership and maximize returns.

2019 Ground Lease with Safehold

• UBS sold the land to Safehold for $285 million while simultaneously signing a long-term ground lease agreement.
• The sale-leaseback arrangement allowed UBS to retain operational control over the building, albeit with significant financial obligations tied to the lease.

2. Renovations and Mismanagement

Modernization Efforts

• UBS invested $76 million in renovations between 2019 and 2021, aiming to modernize the aging property to attract premium tenants.
• Improvements included upgrades to common areas, HVAC systems, and the building facade.

Occupancy Challenges

• Despite renovations, the building struggled to retain and attract tenants:
  • 2021 Occupancy: Post-renovation, occupancy was at 40%.
  • 2024 Decline: By mid-2024, occupancy had further fallen to 35%, reflecting tenant migration to newer, more modern office spaces and the impact of remote work trends.

Market Misalignment

• UBS’s efforts to reposition the building failed to align with evolving tenant preferences, including the demand for flexible layouts and advanced technology infrastructure.
• The property’s older structure made it less competitive against newly built or heavily upgraded Manhattan office towers.

3. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Structural Market Shifts

Pandemic Impact

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote and hybrid work models, significantly reducing demand for traditional office spaces, particularly older properties.
• Midtown Manhattan, once the epicenter of corporate America, saw a sharp rise in office vacancies.

Declining Valuation

• The broader commercial real estate market faced mounting pressures as occupancy rates plummeted and rental incomes dwindled.
• Older buildings like the Sports Illustrated Building became particularly vulnerable, unable to compete with modern, energy-efficient counterparts.

4. Financial Collapse and Auction Sale

July 2024 Sale

• UBS Realty Investors listed the building for auction on Ten-X, an online real estate platform.
• The property was sold for a mere $8.5 million, representing a 97.5% loss from its original purchase price of $332 million.

Debt and Losses

• The low sale price underscored the steep financial burden UBS faced due to the building’s declining valuation and the financial obligations of the ground lease agreement with Safehold.

5. Investor Concerns and Allegations

Asset Management Practices

• UBS faced criticism for its handling of the property:
  • Overvaluation: Critics argue that UBS overpaid for the land in 2012, failing to anticipate market headwinds.
  • Ineffective Renovations: The $76 million spent on upgrades did not translate into improved occupancy or increased tenant demand.
  • Delayed Reaction: UBS was slow to respond to changing market dynamics, particularly the shift towards hybrid work environments.

Transparency Issues

• Investors raised concerns about UBS’s transparency in reporting the financial health of its real estate portfolio.
• Questions emerged about whether UBS adequately disclosed the building’s declining valuation and the risks associated with its ground lease agreement.

6. Broader Implications for the Real Estate Market

Commercial Real Estate in Crisis

• The Sports Illustrated Building’s dramatic devaluation highlights a broader crisis in the commercial real estate market:
  • Older buildings with traditional layouts and limited amenities are struggling to compete with newer properties.
  • Rising interest rates and tightening credit conditions have made refinancing and property upgrades more challenging.

Impact on Midtown Manhattan

• The building’s failure reflects the challenges Midtown Manhattan faces as a commercial hub:
  • Surplus office space and reduced demand.
  • A growing need to repurpose aging office buildings for alternative uses, such as residential or mixed-use developments.

7. UBS’s Response and Reputation

Reputational Damage

• UBS Realty Investors, a subsidiary of UBS Group, suffered reputational damage due to the handling of the Sports Illustrated Building:
  • The substantial loss on the property raised questions about its investment strategies and risk management practices.
  • Investors expressed concerns about UBS’s ability to adapt to market changes and safeguard portfolio value.

Future Implications

• The building’s failure serves as a cautionary tale for UBS and other institutional investors, emphasizing the need for proactive asset management and a deeper understanding of market trends.

8. Lessons Learned

Adaptation to Market Trends

• The failure to anticipate the shift towards hybrid work and the declining demand for traditional office space proved costly for UBS.
• Real estate investors must prioritize flexibility and innovation to remain competitive in evolving markets.

Importance of Transparency

• Institutional investors must provide clear and accurate information about the performance and risks associated with their portfolios to maintain trust and credibility.

Strategic Asset Management

• Proactive strategies, including diversification and timely divestment of underperforming assets, are essential to mitigating losses in volatile markets.

Conclusion

The Sports Illustrated Building’s collapse from a $332 million asset to an $8.5 million liability is a stark illustration of the challenges facing the commercial real estate market. For UBS Group, the property’s devaluation represents a significant financial and reputational blow, highlighting critical shortcomings in asset management and market adaptability.

As commercial real estate continues to grapple with shifting demand, rising interest rates, and the ongoing effects of the pandemic, the story of the Sports Illustrated Building serves as a cautionary tale for investors, regulators, and industry stakeholders. Adapting to a rapidly changing landscape will be crucial for the future stability and success of the sector.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group (or actors working on behalf of Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group), we will inform Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan - UBS Group

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan - UBS Group Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group is in great company ….

What else is Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan - UBS Group hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Sports Illustrated Building Manhattan – UBS Group that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.