Maguire

NY Times article on the chumps - investors - who bought buildings from EOP/Blackstone.

In Los Angeles, Maguire Properties was already laboring under heavy debts when the company paid Blackstone $2.87 billion for 24 buildings, 22 of them in Orange County, the center of the subprime mortgage industry. From the beginning, the loan payments for the Equity Office buildings exceeded the monthly revenue from the properties, according to the company’s regulatory filings.

The company’s vow to raise rents by 25 percent at its newly acquired buildings dissolved quickly as the vacancy rate in Orange County swelled to 16 percent, from 7 percent in 2006, making it harder to make mortgage payments. Maguire sold a number of its Equity Office buildings, some at a loss, and the board forced its chairman and founder, Robert F. Maguire III, to step down.